Go Big! Large-Scale Facilities for Geochemical Research
Where do you go to get excellent data for your geochemical research, outside of your home institution?
I have been addicted to “big machines” such as particle accelerators, neutron sources and synchrotron facilities for analytical purposes since I very first started in research. Working in an interdisciplinary environment has always been inspiring for me and so I have always tried to encourage colleagues (like you) who have not yet used the brilliant analytical and imaging tools available to us around the world to go out and try them.
For this reason, we have launched a new series on the EAG Blogosphere (www.eagblog.org) to introduce you to various large-scale facilities, infrastructures, and projects around the world that are (mostly) free to use for geochemistry research. The contributions will demonstrate a variety of methods and techniques, ranging from high-resolution 3D imaging at the nanoscale to ultrasensitive isotope measurements and spatially-resolved oxidation states.
If you want to study single-crystal surfaces, mineral-fluid interfaces, or multiphase fine-grained to amorphous materials such as soils and rocks, if you want to date sudden events or slow processes events from tectonics, climate change or anthropogenic influence in the past, large-scale facilities can help you!
In this new blog series, different facilities will tell us about themselves and the techniques and services they provide, such as
- the methods they specialize in and how they are used in geochemical research
- how to access the facility: if you need to travel, if there is any cost or funding available, and how to apply
- the people at the facilities and the help staff can provide
We hope that the blog posts will help potential new users, especially students and early career researchers, discover a variety of different techniques as well as new ways of accessing analytical and imaging tools, and in turn, that facilities will learn more about analytical, imaging and information needs in geochemistry. All in all, we hope that the series will strengthen links between providers and users in geochemical research.
In the first contributions to the series, the VERA laboratory in Vienna, Austria will tell us all about Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, and the EXCITE Network describes how through their network you can gain free access to analytical and imaging technologies using X-ray, electrons, and ions at 36 facilities around the world!
You can follow new posts in the series by subscribing to the EAG newsletter and following our social media channels.
If you run a large-scale facility and are interested in contributing to the series, do not hesitate to contact us via the EAG Office (office@eag.org)!
Now, let’s see what excellent data you might be able to produce at locations outside your home institute!
By Silke Merchel, University of Vienna, EAG Communications Committee