9807085 Cummings This grant provides partial support of the acquisition cost of an X-ray diffractometer (XRD) for the Applied Mineralogy Laboratory (AML) at Portland State University (PSU). The AML focuses on the identification and quantification of minerals to solve environmental, geological, engineering, agricultural, and industrial problems. The PI and Co-PI's, Michael Cummings, Georg Grathoff, and Carl Palmer, in addition to undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and the Portland area scientific community will be the main users of the new X-ray diffraction (XRD) unit. The XRD will be housed in the Geology Department and support teaching and research in the Geology Department and the Environmental Sciences and Resources Program. In the Geology Department the XRD unit will be integrated into the geology undergraduate and graduate curriculum. Current research in the Geology Department and the Environmental Sciences and Resources Program include: adsorption of fertilizers onto clay minerals, electrical conductivity of clay minerals in soils, fingerprinting of debris flows, linking physical properties of smectites to their atomic structure, and the identification of phases associated with waste isolation and aquifer remediation. ***
