MRI: Acquisition of Thermal Ionization Mass-Spectrometer for UCSC W.M. Keck Facility

This award funds the acquisition of a new Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer (TIMS) to be integrated into the W.M. Keck Isotope Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The TIMS will be co-located within the recently renovated climate-controlled laboratory and wet chemistry clean labs needed for the preparation of geologic samples for isotopic analysis. The reopening of this open-user facility will catalyze new research and provide the tools needed to train undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral researchers in the use of high precision isotopic methodologies. The Earth and Planetary Science department, which is one of the largest Earth Science department?s in the country with over a 150 majors, has a population representative of the student body which includes over 40% from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds and a first year class made up of 41% of first generation college students. Outreach from this award includes a mini-grants program, available to internal and external users, to support exploratory and developmental research.

This facility will allow high precision U-Pb and U-series geochronologic dating with research applied to the origin and evolution of the continental and oceanic crust, the dynamics of volcanic systems and the timing and rate of glaciations and climatic change. Additional capabilities include measurements of the Sr, Ca, Nd, and Pb isotope systems, which are applied by UCSC Earth and Marine scientists to reconstruct variations in paleo-seawater in response to changes in tectonic uplift, climate, biogeochemical cycling and ocean circulation. UCSC paleontologists and ecologists use these same tools to study food web dynamics and foraging ranges of organisms in the present and past.