9726058 Rudnick This grant provides partial support of the costs of acquiring a new high resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (HR-ICP-MS) equipped with a laser ablation microprobe. In addition to having higher sensitivity and lower detection limits for many elements of interest to igneous petrologists, magnetic sector instruments allow resolution of isobaric interferences with some trace elements that are important to study of the evolution of Earth's crust and mantle that are not resolvable with quadrupole ICP-MS. Many of the studies that will be undertaken require the sensitivity of a HR-ICP-MS and the capability of laser ablation for direct sampling of solid geological materials (i.e. trace element analyses of olivine phenocrysts in Archean komatiites and diamond inclusions and the determination of chalcophile and siderophile element concentrations in MORB). Such research is of fundamental importance to our understanding of the evolution of Earth's core, mantle and crust. With the addition to the faculty of Dr. Daniel Schrag, a new dimension of low temperature geochemistry as applied to paleoceanographic and paleoclimatological research will be added to the traditional hard rock geochemical studies of this group at Harvard. ***
