Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory

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Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory focuses on the study of cosmogenic isotopes, and in particular the study of radiocarbon, or Carbon-14. As a laboratory, part of its aim is to function as a research center, training center, and general community resource. Its stated mission is conducting original research in cosmogenic isotopes. The AMS laboratory was established in 1981 at the University of Arizona. [1] [2]

Carbon-14, (14C), or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and colleagues (1949) to date archaeological, geological and hydrogeological samples. Carbon-14 was discovered on February 27, 1940, by Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Its existence had been suggested by Franz Kurie in 1934.

University of Arizona public university in Tucson, Arizona, United States

The University of Arizona is a public research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885, the UA was the first university in the Arizona Territory. As of 2017, the university enrolls 44,831 students in 19 separate colleges/schools, including the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson and Phoenix and the James E. Rogers College of Law, and is affiliated with two academic medical centers. The University of Arizona is governed by the Arizona Board of Regents. The University of Arizona is one of the elected members of the Association of American Universities and is the only representative from the state of Arizona to this group.

Contents

This laboratory is used primarily to provide radiocarbon measurements. Hence, coverage in research areas is multidisciplinary. Coverage of dating objects includes general interest and scientific interest. For example, dating of the dead sea scrolls was accomplished using this method. [2] [3]

Laboratory facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed.

A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed.

Tandem accelerators

Two, tandem accelerators at this facility accelerate energies up to 3 million volts (3 MeV). The function of these accelerators is to measure scarce, (cosmogenic) isotopes such as aluminium-26, beryllium-10, iodine-129 and the aforementioned carbon-14. In other words, the accelerators are used for measuring rare isotopes that are produced within earth materials, such as rocks or soil, in Earth's atmosphere, and in extraterrestrial objects such as meteorites. These are cosmogenic isotopes, produced from interaction with cosmic rays. [4] [5]

Accelerator mass spectrometry

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is a form of mass spectrometry that accelerates ions to extraordinarily high kinetic energies before mass analysis. The special strength of AMS among the mass spectrometric methods is its power to separate a rare isotope from an abundant neighboring mass. The method suppresses molecular isobars completely and in many cases can separate atomic isobars also. This makes possible the detection of naturally occurring, long-lived radio-isotopes such as 10Be, 36Cl, 26Al and 14C. Their typical isotopic abundance ranges from 10−12 to 10−18. AMS can outperform the competing technique of decay counting for all isotopes where the half-life is long enough.

Aluminium-26, 26Al, is a radioactive isotope of the chemical element aluminium, decaying by either of the modes beta-plus or electron capture, both resulting in the stable nuclide magnesium-26. The half-life of 26Al is 7.17×105 years. This is far too short for the isotope to survive to the present, but a small amount of the nuclide is produced by collisions of argon atoms with cosmic ray protons.

Beryllium-10 isotope of beryllium

Beryllium-10 (10Be) is a radioactive isotope of beryllium. It is formed in the Earth's atmosphere mainly by cosmic ray spallation of nitrogen and oxygen. Beryllium-10 has a half-life of 1.39 × 106 years, and decays by beta decay to stable boron-10 with a maximum energy of 556.2 keV. It decays through the reaction 10Be→10B+e. Light elements in the atmosphere react with high energy galactic cosmic ray particles. The spallation of the reaction products is the source of 10Be (t, u particles like n or p):

Scope

Established in 1981, this facility is a National Science Foundation research facility. It is operated by both the Physics Department and the Geosciences Department of the University of Arizona. It is tasked with both scientific inquiry and education. Topical coverage of investigations includes archaeology, art history, forensic science, radioactive tracer studies, radiometric dating, the carbon cycle, cosmic ray physics, meteorites, geology, paleoclimate, faunal extinctions, hydrologic balance, frequency rate of forest fires, terrestrial magnetic field, solar wind, ocean sciences and instrument development. [4] [6]

National Science Foundation United States government agency

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health. With an annual budget of about US$7.0 billion, the NSF funds approximately 24% of all federally supported basic research conducted by the United States' colleges and universities. In some fields, such as mathematics, computer science, economics, and the social sciences, the NSF is the major source of federal backing.

Art history the academic study of objects of art in their historical development

Art history is the study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts; that is genre, design, format, and style. The study includes painting, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, furniture, and other decorative objects.

Forensic science the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal procedure

Forensic science is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal procedure.

Related Research Articles

Radiocarbon dating is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon.

Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique used to date materials such as rocks or carbon, in which trace radioactive impurities were selectively incorporated when they were formed. The method compares the abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope within the material to the abundance of its decay products, which form at a known constant rate of decay. The use of radiometric dating was first published in 1907 by Bertram Boltwood and is now the principal source of information about the absolute age of rocks and other geological features, including the age of fossilized life forms or the age of the Earth itself, and can also be used to date a wide range of natural and man-made materials.

Geochronology Science of determining the age of rocks, sediments and fossils

Geochronology is the science of determining the age of rocks, fossils, and sediments using signatures inherent in the rocks themselves. Absolute geochronology can be accomplished through radioactive isotopes, whereas relative geochronology is provided by tools such as palaeomagnetism and stable isotope ratios. By combining multiple geochronological indicators the precision of the recovered age can be improved.

Aluminium or aluminum (13Al) has 22 known isotopes from 22Al to 43Al and 4 known isomers. Only 27Al (stable isotope) and 26Al (radioactive isotope, t1/2 = 7.2 × 105 y) occur naturally, however 27Al has a natural abundance of >99.9%. Other than 26Al, all radioisotopes have half-lives under 7 minutes, most under a second. The standard atomic weight is 26.9815385(7). 26Al is produced from argon in the atmosphere by spallation caused by cosmic-ray protons. Aluminium isotopes have found practical application in dating marine sediments, manganese nodules, glacial ice, quartz in rock exposures, and meteorites. The ratio of 26Al to 10Be has been used to study the role of sediment transport, deposition, and storage, as well as burial times, and erosion, on 105 to 106 year time scales.

Absolute dating is the process of determining an age on a specified chronology in archaeology and geology. Some scientists prefer the terms chronometric or calendar dating, as use of the word "absolute" implies an unwarranted certainty of accuracy. Absolute dating provides a numerical age or range in contrast with relative dating which places events in order without any measure of the age between events.

Microdosing, or micro-dosing, is a technique for studying the behaviour of drugs in humans through the administration of doses so low ("sub-therapeutic") they are unlikely to produce whole-body effects, but high enough to allow the cellular response to be studied. This is called a "Phase 0 study" and is usually conducted before clinical Phase I to predict whether a drug is viable for the next phase of testing. Human microdosing aims to reduce the resources spent on non-viable drugs and the amount of testing done on animals.

Environmental radioactivity is produced by radioactive materials in the human environment. While some radioisotopes, such as strontium-90 (90Sr) and technetium-99 (99Tc), are only found on Earth as a result of human activity, and some, like potassium-40 (40K), are only present due to natural processes, a few isotopes, e.g. tritium (3H), result from both natural processes and human activities. The concentration and location of some natural isotopes, particularly uranium-238 (238U), can be affected by human activity.

Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar

Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar is an autonomous research institution of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India. The Institute was founded by Professor Bidhu Bhusan Das, who was Director of Public Instruction, Odisha, at that time. Das set up the institute in 1972, supported by the Government of Odisha under the patronage of Odisha's education minister Banamali Patnaik, and chose Dr. Trilochan Pradhan as its first director, when the Institute started theoretical research programs in the various branches of physics. Other notable physicists in the Institute's early days included Prof. T. P. Das, of SUNY, Albany, New York, USA and Prof. Jagdish Mohanty of the Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Kanpur and Australian National University, Canberra. In 1981, the Institute moved to its present campus near Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar. It was taken over by the Department of Atomic Energy, India on 25 March 1985 and started functioning as an autonomous body.

Meteoritics & Planetary Science is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1953. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Meteoritical Society. Since January 1, 2003, the editor-in-chief is A.J. Timothy Jull. The journal's broad focus is planetary science.

The Shroud of Turin, a linen cloth that tradition associates with the crucifixion and burial of Jesus, has undergone numerous scientific tests, the most notable of which is radiocarbon dating, in an attempt to determine the relic's authenticity. In 1988, scientists at three separate laboratories dated samples from the Shroud to a range of 1260–1390 AD, which coincides with the first certain appearance of the shroud in the 1350s and is much later than the burial of Jesus in 30 or 33 AD. Aspects of the 1988 test continue to be debated. Despite some technical concerns that have been raised about radiocarbon dating of the Shroud, no radiocarbon-dating expert has asserted that the dating is unreliable.

Surface exposure dating is a collection of geochronological techniques for estimating the length of time that a rock has been exposed at or near Earth's surface. Surface exposure dating is used to date glacial advances and retreats, erosion history, lava flows, meteorite impacts, rock slides, fault scarps, cave development, and other geological events. It is most useful for rocks which have been exposed for between 10 years and 30,000,000 years.

A.J. Timothy Jull is a radiocarbon scientist and director of the University of Arizona's Accelerator Mass Spectrometer Laboratory, as well as Editor in Chief of Meteoritics & Planetary Science and Radiocarbon: An International Journal of Cosmogenic Isotope Research. Dr. Jull's work spans numerous disciplines, from radiocarbon dating the Shroud of Turin, to looking for signs of life in Martian meteorites.

Walter Kutschera is an Austrian physicist.

Stable isotope ratio ratio of two stable isotopes

The term stable isotope has a meaning similar to stable nuclide, but is preferably used when speaking of nuclides of a specific element. Hence, the plural form stable isotopes usually refers to isotopes of the same element. The relative abundance of such stable isotopes can be measured experimentally, yielding an isotope ratio that can be used as a research tool. Theoretically, such stable isotopes could include the radiogenic daughter products of radioactive decay, used in radiometric dating. However, the expression stable-isotope ratio is preferably used to refer to isotopes whose relative abundances are affected by isotope fractionation in nature. This field is termed stable isotope geochemistry.

Albert Edward "Ted" Litherland is a nuclear physicist, known for his pioneering work in accelerator mass spectroscopy (AMS).

The André E. Lalonde Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory is a accelerator mass spectrometry research facility at the University of Ottawa in Canada. It is currently the only facility of its type in Canada. It is named after former University of Ottawa Faculty of Science dean André E. Lalonde, who died of cancer in 2012.

Kunchithapadam Gopalan is an Indian geochronologist and an emeritus scientist at National Geophysical Research Institute. He is known for his studies on the chronologies of critical rock suites of the Indian subcontinent and is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, Indian Geophysical Union and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary sciences in 1982.

References

  1. ↑ "Our Aim". Stated aims and mission statement. University of Arizona. September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  2. 1 2 "Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory". Highlights of appointed tasks. University of Arizona. September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  3. ↑ Andrews, John T. (1997). "Replication of accelerator mass spectrometry carbon-14 dates on the acid-insoluble fraction of Ross Sea surface sediments". Antarctic Journal of the United States Review 1997 (NSF grants - OPP 96-14287, EAR 95-08413, OPP 97-96266): 01. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  4. 1 2 "Direction of Research". Overview and contributions of this facility. University of Arizona. September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  5. ↑ "NEC Pellerton AMS Machine". University of Arizona. September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  6. ↑ Andrews, J (1999). "Problems and Possible Solutions Concerning Radiocarbon Dating of Surface Marine Sediments, Ross Sea, Antarctica". Quaternary Research. 52: 206. Bibcode:1999QuRes..52..206A. doi:10.1006/qres.1999.2047.

Coordinates: 33°13′47″N110°57′14″W / 33.2296°N 110.9538°W / 33.2296; -110.9538

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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