Project Grant DESC0025626

This three-year, $408,968 National Science Foundation project grant funds research at the University of Chicago to improve estimates of ancient ocean pH and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations through analysis of boron isotope ratios in halite evaporites. The researchers will investigate boron behavior in halite formations to determine boron hosting phases like fluid inclusions or trace minerals. Experimentally precipitated halites, natural salt cores, and a 36 million year old marine...

This $173,000 National Science Foundation project grant supports research to develop muscovite mica as a new continuous geothermometer for determining crustal rock temperature histories between 275-425 degrees Celsius. Lehigh University will conduct diffusion and dating experiments on muscovite samples with known thermal histories to test its utility for temperature measurement during rock cooling. Samples will also undergo reheating experiments to examine muscovite response to shorter thermal...

This $471,604 National Science Foundation project grant will fund research into the origin and expansion of silica biomineralization and its influence on the global silica cycle from 520-440 million years ago. The Regents of the University of Colorado will conduct stable isotope analysis of silicon in the oldest fossils of sponges and radiolarians from western United States geological sites. Researchers will evaluate isotope preservation and build an improved Cambrian-Ordovician silica isotope...

This three-year, $337,782 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) supports research at California State University Fullerton and Princeton University to determine the time and length scales of magma bodies in magmatic arcs. The grant recipients will study potassium feldspar phenocrysts and megacrysts up to 12 cm long containing mineral inclusions from the Tuolumne Intrusive Complex in Yosemite National Park. Electron microprobe, laser...

The National Science Foundation awarded a $885,496 Project Grant to the Berkeley Geochronology Center (BGC) under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) to support the acquisition of a new Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer (TIMS) instrument. The TIMS will be used to conduct high-precision uranium-lead and uranium-series dating of rocks and minerals, enabling BGC researchers to determine the ages of key geological events and processes that have shaped the Earth. The new TIMS will replace an...

This two-year Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences provides $146,619 to the University Enterprises, Inc. doing business as Sacramento State Sponsored Research to conduct research titled "RUI: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: CONSTRAINING PERIDOTITE ALTERATION TIMESCALES WITH ENVIRONMENTAL TRACERS (3H, 39AR, 14C AND 81KR)." The funding supports basic research under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) from August 1, 2021 to July 31, 2023. The Geosciences...

This Cooperative Agreement awarded by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) under the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (CFDA 15.073) will provide $399,208 in funding from October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2027 to the University of Kansas Center for Research Inc. to conduct an integrated geochemical and stratigraphic evaluation of Permian bedded evaporites in Kansas. The project aims to identify and map zones of critical mineral enrichment, including lithium and rare earth elements, through...

This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) provides $650,214 to the University of Nevada, Reno to study lithium enrichment in volcanic caldera systems. Principal investigators Drs. Harlaux and Ruprecht will analyze melt and fluid inclusions in volcanic rocks from the McDermitt Caldera using electron microprobe, LA-ICP-MS, and SIMS to determine how lithium progressively enriched in magmas and was partitioned into volatile phases during magma...

This $220,281 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Earth Sciences will support the acquisition of an electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometer and X-ray irradiator at the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, Nevada. ESR dating methods offer advantages over other radiation exposure dating techniques, allowing for the analysis of a wider range of materials and extending the dating range to 2 million years. This new instrumentation will establish DRI...

The National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences awarded a $656,841 project grant to the Berkeley Geochronology Center to improve the 40Ar/39Ar geochronometer. The goal of this three-year grant, which runs from August 2021 through July 2024, is to strengthen and enhance the national scientific enterprise through basic research in the earth sciences, as outlined in the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050). Specifically, the Berkeley Geochronology Center will work to enhance the precision...