9807951 Kurz This grant provides three years of partial salary support for the Isotope Geochemistry Facility technician at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Mr. D. Lott). This is a phase I technician support grant under the Instrumentation and Facilities Program (Earth Sciences). Lott will have responsibility for maintenance, training, and technical support associated with the thermal ionization and noble gas mass spectrometers, under the supervision of Dr. M. Kurz. Lott has considerable experience in developing cryogenic systems that are necessary for separating the noble gases from one another prior to mass spectrometry. This laboratory has excellent capabilities for helium, but is increasingly focused on measurement of the heavier noble gases (Ar and Xe). Lott will therefore devote some of his effort to developing new methodologies for cryogenically separating the heavy noble gases, in addition to training of graduate students and supervision of day to day laboratory operations. His presence in the laboratory will insure that the instrumentation remains state-of-the-art, and that the technical capabilities are widely used. The areas of research, that will benefit, cross many disciplinary boundaries, ranging from surface exposure dating of glacial deposits to mantle geochemistry. There is a large community of geochemists at Woods Hole who will also directly benefit from the technical support. ***
