9711377 Walker This grant provides $100,000 as two-years partial salary support for a technician to oversee operations and maintenance, train new users and develop new geochemical techniques utilizing the thermal ionization mass spectrometers (TIMS) in the Isotope Geochemistry Lab (IGL) at the University of Maryland. This is a Phase II grant for technical support under the IF/EAR program Continued support of a highly qualified scientist, Dr. Sonia Esperanca, in this technical position is fully warranted and her added expertise provides this group with a great deal of added scientific motivation for further development of difficult chemical separation and mass spectrometric techniques for the analysis of lithium isotopes and osmium isotopes in the Re/Os system. The development of techniques in the Re/Os system has already brought significant contributions to our understanding of the early geochemical differentiation of the Earth and new developments in the use of lithium isotopes as tracers of fluid flow in magmatic, hydrothermal and groundwater systems holds future promise. Lastly, the addition of a new faculty member this summer, Dr Christina Gallup, brings new expertise in uranium series dating and trace element analyses in coral skeletons as paleoclimatic indicators. ***
