2023
August
Boxes coming from Bremen are beginning to show up in the Gould Simpson loading dock!! We are super excited to share that ALC/AHIL will be installing a new iCap-RQ quadrupole ICPMS in August, and a new Neoma MC-ICPMS/MS in September! Huge thanks to NSF-MRI, U. Arizona, ThermoFisher, and all of our amazing lab folks for making all this possible.
Stay tuned for more updates this Fall, including more images of the labs, installation, as well as news on analytical capabilities that will be coming on-line and accessible to the Earth Science community through the Arizona LaserChron and AHIL.
July
New paper “A community-led calibration of the Zr isotope Reference Materials: NIST Candidate RM 8299 and SRM 3169” is finally published in Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry!! This is the result of a multi-year effort with NIST to develop and calibrate an isotopic reference material for mass-dependent and mass-independent Zr isotopic analyses as an inter-laboratory effort. So much work and effort went into this! We are excited to finally see this published. Check it out here
June
New paper “Hadaean to Palaeoarchaean stagnant-lid tectonics revealed by zircon magnetism” is published in the journal Nature!! This study, led by collaborator John Tarduno at University of Rochester, reports paleomagnetic intensity measurements in detrital zircon crystals from the Hadean to Mesoarchean of the Barberton Greenstone Belt. We show that detrital zircon during this time period record an invariant field intensity, which indicates a stasis in paleolatitude and thus a lack of highly mobile horizontal plate tectonics. Check it out here
May
New paper “Temperature and co-crystallization effects on Zr isotopes“ by AHIL collaborator Heather Kirkpatrick (UCLA) is out in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Check it out here
April
New paper “To sink, or not to sink: the thermal and density structure of the modern northern Andean arc constrained by xenolith petrology“ by AHIL PhD student Lisa Zieman is out in GEOLOGY. Check it out here
March
New paper “Zircon growth experiments reveal limited equilibrium Zr isotope fractionation in magmas“ by AHIL MS alumn Hannah Tompkins is out in Geochemical Perspectives Letters! Check it out here
January
AHIL and ALC are excited to welcome new postdoc Dr. Michelle Foley! Michelle obtained her PhD at University of Lausanne (SWI) working on geochronology and geochemistry of the Chon Aike silicic large igneous province in Argentina.
2022
October
We have received new funding from the NSF Major Research Instrumentation Instrumentation (MRI) program to acquire a next-generation MC-ICPMS instrument that will be co-managed between the Arizona LaserChron Center (ALC) and the Arizona Heavy Isotopes Laboratory (AHIL). We expect to have the new system installed in our labs in 2023, so stay tuned for more updates!
September
AHIL is excited to welcome three new members to our team!! MS student Ms. Maria Marroquín (BS from Los Andes U., Colombia), Dr. Aleisha Johnson (PhD from ASU and previously at U. Chicago), and Dr. Patricia Kang (PhD from U. Minnesota). Welcome all to the team!
We are also excited to have PhD student João Gomes (from Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brasil) visiting us this Fall.
June 1
The AHIL team and collaborators Dr. Alan Rooney (Yale U.) and Dr. Carlos Garrido (CSIC-U. Granada) return from the field after spending two weeks visiting classic orogenic peridotite massifs in the Iberian peninsula and the French Pyrenees. Can’t wait to start cracking these samples open in the Tucson lab!
New paper “Tectonic domains in the NW Amazonian Craton from geophysical and geological data” is out in Precambrian Research. Check it out here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301926822001796
May 30
We have received new funding from the NSF Instrumentation and Facilities program to acquire a new micro-Raman system and perform key upgrades to our SEM-EDS-EBSD in the Arizona LaserChron Center. We are excited to get these new systems on-line very soon!!
May 24
March 7
A special volume of Elements on “Heavy Stable Isotopes: From Crystals to Planets”, guest edited with our close friend and colleague François Tissot is finally published!! Be sure to check it out on this link: http://elementsmagazine.org/.
Many thanks to all contributing authors (James Watkins, Michael Antonelli, Christoph Burkhardt, Haolan Tang, Ed Young, Paolo Sossi, Anat Shahar, Sarah Aarons, Aleisha Johnson and Shelby Rader), and Elements editors Richard Harrison and Jodi Rosso, for their efforts making this issue a reality!
Feb 1
New grant “CAREER: Redefining the high field strength element systematics of subduction systems using non-traditional stable isotopes” gets set in motion!! Thank you NSF!!
2021
New paper “Diffusion anisotropy of Ti in zircon and implications for Ti-in-zircon thermometry” led by our awesome colleague Eli Bloch is out in EPSL. Check it out here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X21005732?dgcid=author
Dec 7
Aug 26
We are super excited to welcome two new graduate students into our group, Porfirio Irepan Ascencio and Liam O’Connor!!
Porfirio obtained a BS degree in Chemistry and minor in Mathematics at Indiana University in 2020.
Liam obtained a BS degree in Geosciences from Princeton University in 2020.
Welcome to UA, AHIL and ALC, Porfirio and Liam!!
New paper “Absence of a long-lived lunar paleomagnetosphere” is out in Science Advances. Check it out here: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/32/eabi7647
August 4
May 21
New paper on the Ti and Zr isotope systematics of sedimentary environments published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta: “Reliability of detrital marine sediments as proxy for continental crust composition: the effects of hydrodynamic sorting on Ti and Zr isotope systematics” Check it out here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016703721003033
January 4
We are extremely excited to announce that as of January of 2021 our group has joined the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona!! We are working on ramping our laboratory and research activities back up, so stay tuned for more updates.
2020
New paper on the geochronology and Sr-Nd-Hf isotopic composition of silicic and alkalic intrusive complexes associate with the Deccan Traps, India, published in EPSL: “Widespread silicic and alkaline magmatism synchronous with the Deccan Traps flood basalts, India”. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X20305604
October 5
Our new paper on Zr isotopes “Drivers of zirconium isotope fractionation in Zr-bearing phases and melts: the roles of vibrational, nuclear field shift and diffusive effects” is now published on Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Check it out here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016703720305925
October 1
New paper on the geochronology and tectonic history of meta-(ultra)mafic complexes in the Central Cordillera of Colombia, as part of a book honoring the career of Umberto Cordani: “Tectonic juxtaposition of Triassic and Cretaceous meta-(ultra)mafic complexes in the Central Cordillera of Colombia (Medellin area) revealed by zircon U-Pb geochronology and Lu-Hf isotopes”. Full text can be downloaded here
September 28
New Science Advances paper on the elevation and paleobotanical history of the Central Andean Plateau. “Neogene precipitation, vegetation, and elevation history of the Central Andean Plateau”. Check it out here: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/35/eaaz4724
August 28
May 7
Our new paper “Zirconium stable isotope analysis of zircon by MC-ICP-MS: Methods and application to evaluating intra-crystalline zonation in a zircon megacryst” is now published in the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry. You can check it out and download it for free here: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2020/ja/c9ja00315k#!divAbstract
UR-LIG PhD student Hannah Tompkins has been awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!! Congrats Hannah!!!
March 31
February 28
Mauricio will be giving a seminar in the Department of Geoscience at Princeton U., NJ. More info here
2019
December 18, 2019
Our new paper “Extreme Zr stable isotope fractionation during magmatic fractional crystallization” is now published in the journal Science Advances! Check it out on this link: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/12/eaax8648 or directly download it here
We are presenting a few posters and a talk at AGU next week. Come by to say hi and see what we’ve been up to:
Talk: The Zirconium Stable Isotope Systematics of Continental Crust Formation in an Active Continental Arc by Zieman et al. (V54A-03, Friday, 13, 16:30 - 16:45, Moscone South - 152)
Poster: The Effects of Partial Melting and Re-fertilization in the Zr Stable Isotope Composition of Earth’s Upper Mantle by Ibañez-Mejia et al. (Friday 13, Moscone South - Poster Hall)
Poster: Single-grain 238U/235U measurements in Early Earth zircons: Implications for the Hadean environment, magmatic differentiation and geochronology by Tissot et al. (Wednesday, 11, Moscone South - Poster Hall)
Poster: Does equilibrium zircon crystallization drive Zr stable isotope fractionation in magmatic systems? An ab-initio investigation by Méheut et al. (Friday 13, Moscone South - Poster Hall)
Poster: Zr Isotope Variations in Zircon as an Indicator of Magmatic Differentiation by Kirkpatrick et al. (Friday 13, Moscone South - Poster Hall)
December 7, 2019
Mauricio will be giving a seminar in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University, NY
November 20, 2019
Mauricio will be giving a seminar in the Department of Earth Sciences at Dartmouth College, NH
November 1, 2019
October 11, 2019
Dr. Scott Maclennan will be giving a Department Seminar at the EES Department (U. Rochester) entitled “Testing the Snowball Earth Hypothesis with High Precision Geochronology”. More info here. Come check it out!
October 1, 2019
We welcome Dr. Scott Maclennan (PhD 2019, Princeton University) as new postdoctoral research associate at the UR-LIG!
September 27, 2019
We are presenting a poster on Zr stable isotopes at the GSA meeting in Phoenix. Come by booth No. 37 on Monday afternoon to say hi!
We welcome Hannah Tompkins and Maria Fernanda Almanza who are joining us this Fall as new PhD students at the UR-LIG