Arizona LaserChron Center

I first visited Arizona LaserChron Center (ALC) in September 2018 to assist current PhD candidate Kristina Butler in analyzing detrital and igneous samples from our field area in Patagonia, Argentina. The helpful staff at the lab introduced me to the physics and chemistry behind mass spectrometry in regards to uranium-lead (U-Pb) detrital zircon geochronology. That trip we analyzed over 40 samples on the Element2 mass spectrometer.

In April 2019, Kristina Butler and I returned to ALC to run detrital and igneous samples collected during our field season in Patagonia, Argentina which took place in January 2019. We ran over 20 samples, including 3 of my own thesis research samples, on the Element2 single-collector mass spectrometer. Additionally, I was exposed to hafnium isotopic analysis by shadowing Kristina on the Nu Plasma multicollector mass spectrometer.

Recently, as part of my summer research experience with the Stanford SURGE Program, I visited ALC with Dr. Matthew Malkowski, PhD candidates Stephen Dobbs and Colin White, and a Stanford undergraduate to run detrital zircon U-Pb analyses on about 50 samples from our study areas in Bering Sea, Alaska and southern Patagonia. We ran samples on both the Element2 and Nu Plasma mass spectrometers. Lab manager, Mark Pecha, spoke to us about advances in the lab’s analytical techniques and capacity that will allow radiometric analyses to become more efficient, accessible, and accurate.

The detrital zircon geochronology aspect of my research has especially stimulated my scientific interests. I have enjoyed learning how to interpret detrital age populations and acquire maximum depositional ages of particular stratigraphic intervals. This work has given me the desire to explore geochronology more as it relates to problems in sedimentology-stratigraphy and tectonics.