Equipment: MRI Track 1: Acquisition of a Laser Ablation Time of Flight Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer for UCSB Researchers and Educators

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award supports the acquisition of an integrated Laser Ablation Time Of Flight Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (LA-TOF-ICP-MS) system for research and teaching at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). This instrumentation will facilitate the investigations of fourteen UCSB faculty and researchers, their students, and collaborators. It will also enable access for a broad range of researchers and students elsewhere in California and globally. The new analytical capabilities of this system will improve the quality of undergraduate learning and instruction in earth science and allied fields, provide new opportunities s for undergraduate and graduate research projects, and form the basis for the creation of novel and engaging analytical geochemistry coursework. The PIs on this award actively participate in the Geochemical Society’s capacity-building grants program, and the NSF-funded ‘Advancing Geochronology Science, Spaces, and Systems’ (AGeS3), which fund research opportunities for underrepresented students as well as scientists from developing countries. The LA-TOF-ICP-MS system enables rapid three-dimensional imaging of elemental and isotopic variations in geological and biological materials at the micron scale with minimal sample preparation. Key capabilities of this system include the ability to scan the entire mass spectrum from sodium to uranium in less than 30 microseconds, and the routine production of quantitative images at a rate of up to 1000 pixels per second at detection limits in the parts-per-million range. Specific research objectives include: 1) dating complexly zoned minerals to understand a range of magmatic, metamorphic, sedimentary, and tectonic processes, 2) characterizing the often-complex distribution of U in carbonates to obtain better U-Pb ages, and; 3) retrieving detailed paleoclimate proxy records from carbonates. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.