Marine Geological Samples Laboratory: Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island (support of marine sample curation)

Samples of seafloor rocks, cores, corals, hydrothermal vent fluids and chimney deposits, sediments, other materials are valuable scientific resources that are collected at great expense on scientific oceanographic expeditions. Some samples come from shallow, near-shore environments of unusual and ephemeral character and others come from mid-ocean ridges, seamounts, the abyssal plain, the roots of volcanic islands, and continental shelves.

Many samples come from inaccessible places miles below the surface of the ocean and are retrieved from the seafloor by specialized robotic vehicles, human occupied submersibles, coring devices, and/or rock dredges. To preserve these valuable samples and make them available to other scientists for studies not envisioned by the original collectors, the Marine Geology and Geophysics Program of the Division of Ocean Sciences of the National Science Foundation funds four professionally run repositories that house samples collected by seagoing scientists.

This award funds the curation, storage, and distribution of marine seafloor samples by the University of Rhode Island's Marine Geological Sample Laboratory. Samples are distributed upon request to scientists and educators wishing to better understand the ocean basins, the distribution of its resources, and how the Earth works.

Over the past 3-years, this repository has distributed almost 800 samples of seafloor material to US and international scientists to advance our knowledge of the seafloor, ocean crust, mantle, seafloor volcanism, and the history of ocean chemistry and Earth's climate. Samples from the repositories have been used to pioneer new analytical techniques and provide important insights into the seafloor, the continental margins, and sub-oceanic magmatic processes.

Broader impacts of the work include training of graduate students in curation and the techniques used to collect samples, graduate level course involvement, and public outreach via tours for primary and secondary school groups, local community organizations, and other interested parties. This award also provides support for an essential piece of marine geology infrastructure and provides support to an institution in a state that does not receive a significant amount of Federal funding (i.e., an EPSCoR state).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.