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gsecars_users@millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov

September 2020

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2 discussions

Input on the future of GSECARS
by Nancy Lazarz 29 Sep '20

29 Sep '20

Dear GSECARS User, We are writing to let you know of forthcoming changes in the NSF funding for the GSECARS beamlines at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory, and to request your input. GSECARS has been funded since its inception in 1994 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Earth Sciences Instrumentation and Facilities (EAR/IF) to operate sector 13 at the APS as a national user facility for Earth science research. The Consortium for Materials Properties Research in the Earth Sciences (COMPRES) has been funded by the same program since its inception in 2002 to provide facilities and infrastructure for the high-pressure mineral physics community. COMPRES has been providing partial support for beamlines at NSLS/NSLS-II at Brookhaven, the ALS at the LBNL, and the APS at Argonne. NSF had requested GSECARS and COMPRES to consider the possibility of merging and to prepare a report on this topic in Year 3 of their current Cooperative Agreements. This report was submitted to NSF in January 2020, and presented three models: o Model 1. Two Institutions with Formal Coordination o Model 2. Two Institutions with Common Governance o Model 3. Unified Consortium for Earth Materials Research On September 9, 2020 NSF issued a Dear Colleague Letter entitled "Competition of Management and Operations of synchrotron-hosted analytical capabilities for Earth sciences research" (https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2020/nsf20124/nsf20124.jsp) It announces NSF's intention to issue a new solicitation for a single organization to manage and operate beamlines for Earth sciences research. The solicitation should be released by the end of 2020, with an anticipated submission date for the new proposal in the second quarter of 2021. GSECARS and COMPRES intend to work together to submit a new proposal in response to this forthcoming solicitation. We need to decide on the organization to submit the proposal and how to involve the Earth science user community in plans for that proposal, and in providing guidance on the ongoing future operations of the beamlines. >From the beginning COMPRES has been a formal organization with member institutions, by-laws, and elected committees to manage the organization. The COMPRES member institutions all have programs in high-pressure mineral physics research. For the new proposal the user community is much broader than high-pressure mineral physics. GSECARS serves users from the geochemistry, petrology, environmental sciences, and many other Earth science disciplines. One possibility is to form a new organization, perhaps called GeoSync, that would consist of members of the broad Earth science community who uses synchrotrons in their research. This organization could choose representatives who would help to formulate plans for the new proposal, for the operation of the NSF-EAR supported beamlines, and for long-term planning for the needs of this community. We would really appreciate hearing your thoughts on the future of GSECARS and COMPRES beamlines in general. We would also like your input on this idea for a new GeoSync organization. Some questions that come to mind include: - Who should the members be, e.g. institutions or individuals? - How should the organization provide input to the new proposal? - How should the organization provide input to the management of the beamlines? - Would you be willing to serve in a leadership role in such a new organization? We hope to hear your thoughts and suggestions on this matter. You can respond via e-mail to rivers(a)cars.uchicago.edu<mailto:rivers@cars.uchicago.edu> and sutton(a)cars.uchicago.edu<mailto:sutton@cars.uchicago.edu>. Sincerely, Mark Rivers Stephen Sutton

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COMPRES Keynote Lecture Series: Maureen Long on Sep 17, 2020
by Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences 03 Sep '20

03 Sep '20

Please distribute to your mailing list: Please join us for the COMPRES Keynote Lecture Series with: Dr. Maureen Long Yale University on September 17, 2020 at 4pm EDT Zoom link: https://unm.zoom.us/j/97090450339?pwd=ZEpiZG05NEx5bmNlZkIwT01NQ0U0QT09 Talk title and abstract: Adventures in anisotropy at the base of the mantle: New constraints on deep mantle flow Observations of seismic anisotropy, or the directional dependence of seismic wavespeeds, provide one some of the most direct constraints on the pattern of flow in the Earth's mantle. In particular, as our understanding of crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO) of olivine aggregates under a range of deformation conditions has improved, our ability to exploit observations of upper mantle anisotropy has led to fundamental discoveries about the patterns of flow in the upper mantle and the drivers of that flow. It has been challenging to develop a similar framework for understanding flow in the lowermost mantle, even though there is convincing observational evidence for seismic anisotropy at these depths. New approaches to the observation and modeling of lowermost mantle anisotropy, in combination with constraints from mineral physics, are progressing towards interpretive frameworks that allow for the discrimination of different mantle flow geometries in different regions of D". In particular, observational strategies that involve the use of multiple types of body wave phases sampled over a range of propagation azimuths enable detailed forward modeling approaches that can discriminate between different mechanisms for D" anisotropy (e.g., CPO of post-perovskite, bridgmanite, or ferropericlase, or shape preferred orientation of partial melt) and identify plausible anisotropic orientations. Ongoing improvements in seismic observational strategies, experimental and computational mineral physics, and geodynamic modeling approaches are leading to new avenues for understanding flow in the deep mantle through the study of seismic anisotropy. Please visit http://compres.unm.edu/events/keynote-lecture-series for more information. A calendar invite is attached. COMPRES Central Office compres(a)unm.edu<mailto:compres@unm.edu>

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