Post date: Dec 01, 2010 4:44:22 AM
Nine universities and the CSIRO will replace aged and obsolete equipment with new mass spectrometers which will be strategically placed at opposite ends of our continent to improve access for Australian researchers to these instruments for which there is high demand. These instruments will allow more exact dating of events such as eruptions, impacts, climate change, biological extinctions, mineral deposits and mountain building.
The John de Laeter Centre of Mass Spectrometry will acquire and operate a new generation ultrahigh resolution Multi-Collector Noble Gas Mass Spectrometer with fully automated low-volume extraction line, lasers and furnace for 40Ar/39Ar geochronology and 3He/4He thermochronology. This new facility will provide more accurate, precise and rapid data collection and enable increased temporal and spatial resolution in minerals as young as the Quaternary Period. The new system will lead to explore literally new dimension in 40Ar/39Ar geochronology and will be used to address some of the most outstanding problems in Geosciences including applications to geothermal systems, fault history analysis, geotectonics, palaeoclimate and ore formation.
ANU and the John de Laeter Centre (WA) emerge as national equipment concentrations, with depth, breadth and high levels of technical support. Here we seek to establish a joint facility with two mass spectrometers to replace aged and obsolete equipment, to service a growing and diversifying research community focused on establishing precise correlation of events through time. We will establish calibrations between laboratories, and between biological, U-Pb, and Ar-Ar time scales, examining the architecture of ancient tectonic environments, and the resource deposits they contain. The upgraded joint facility will provide data we need to understand the history of eruptions, extinctions, impacts, orebodies and orogenies through time.