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Overview of the Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Science
A. Overview and Role of COMPRES
COMPRES is a community-based consortium whose goal is to enable Earth Science researchers to conduct the next generation of high-pressure science on world-class equipment and facilities. It facilitates the operation of beam lines, the development of new technologies for high pressure research, and advocates for science and educational programs to the various funding agencies
The goal of COMPRES is to enable Earth Science researchers to conduct the next generation of high-pressure science on world-class equipment and facilities. COMPRES does not fund research projects, rather it works to ensure that projects can be conducted. Individual research projects or collaborative research projects, such as the Grand Challenges for Rheology and Elasticity, are formally independent from the COMPRES core grant; however, they are intimately related intellectually as they give prime examples of the scientific problems that can be addressed using the facilities operated and the infrastructure developed by COMPRES.
COMPRES works to enhance the access to appropriate resources and infrastructure that exceed those available to the individual researcher. With a broad user base, this organization is facilitating the next generation of science where resources and infrastructural needs exceed those available to the individual researcher.
Research in mineral physics is essential for interpreting observational data from many other disciplines in the Earth Sciences, from geodynamics to seismology to geochemistry to petrology to geomagnetism to planetary science, and extending also to materials science and climate studies, as illustrated in an EOS article “The Future of High-Pressure Mineral Physics”, Oct 4, 2008 which can be found at: http://www.compres.stonybrook.edu/Publications/RCL%20EOS%20MS/Published_article.pdf. The field of high-pressure mineral physics is highly interdisciplinary. Mineral physicists do not always study minerals nor use only physics; they study the science of materials which comprise the Earth and other planets and employ the concepts and techniques from chemistry, physics, materials science, and biology.
Such interdisciplinarity also has major international dimensions, with attendant synergistic and competitive aspects. A dramatic example of the international dimensions occurred during the past two years. In 2004, a new post-perovskite phase of MgSiO3 was discovered by in situ high-pressure experiments in Japan by Murakami et al. in 2004). The importance of this discovery for the deep earth was immediately recognized by the mineral physics communities on 3 continents, leading to rapid experimental confirmation and theoretical (first-principles) exploration, including European and US contributions. These developments had immediate and profound impacts on multidisciplinary studies of the deep mantle of the Earth [see feature article by Lay et al in the January 4, 2005 issue of EOS].
The ability to the US mineral physics community to respond immediately to the post-perovskite discovery was in large part a reflection of the success of COMPRES in greatly expanding the size, breadth and technical capabilities of the US high-pressure community which now competes on equal footing with the Japanese and Europeans who had a considerable jump on this country at the time of the birth of COMPRES.
Indeed, the successes flowing from the rapid growth of COMPRES are already feeding back into the international community: (a) the mineral physics community of France is currently organizing itself along the lines of COMPRES because of the success of the “grass-roots’ structure of COMPRES. [P. Raterron et al: “Presse Instrument National couplée au Synchrotron-PINS”]; and (b)B. Winker et al. in Germany, scientists in Earth Sciences, Materials Science and Solid State Chemistry have obtained funding for a Priority Program of the Deutsches Forschung Gemeinschaft [“Strukturen und Eigenschaften von Kristallen bei extreme hohen Drücken und Temperaturen”].
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Among other current research topics receiving considerable attention in the field of mineral physics are: (1) the incorporation of water, carbon and other volatiles into high-pressure phases and the influence of these volatiles on the physical properties [e.g., transport and thermo-elastic] and deep Earth processes [e.g., deep earthquakes, kinetics and mechanisms of solid-solid phase transitions and melting relations]; (2) the valence state and spin configuration of iron in the mineral phases in the Earth’s mantle; (3) simultaneous studies of the elasticity and equation-of-state of solids at high pressures and temperatures using acoustic techniques in conjunction with X-ray synchrotron radiation; (4) rheological investigations at conditions of the upper mantle, transition zone, and below; (5) the role of clathrates, or solid gas hydrates, in influencing processes in the interiors of planets. Studies on each of these topics require not only the state-of-the-art infrastructure and physical and chemical expertise that are the hallmarks of modern mineral and rock physics, but also have broad interdisciplinary importance. In short, such studies require the kind of broad community support embodied in COMPRES.
On a somewhat longer time scale, the field of high-pressure earth and planetary sciences has changed dramatically over the past decade. Increasingly sophisticated tools are being used to investigate the properties of matter under the extreme pressure and temperature conditions of the Earth and other planetary interiors. As a prime example, the capabilities of modern synchrotron and neutron sources have presented enormous opportunities for new types of experimentation at high pressure. In parallel with these advances in large, centralized facilities, new types of high-pressure devices, of both the diamond-anvil and multi-anvil types, have been developed to take advantage of them. Similar progress has been achieved in the computational power for calculations of mineral properties, and new facilities to perform neutron scattering studies at high pressure are emerging. As a result, it is now possible to do experiments and perform simulations that were not dreamed of 10 years ago.
Many of these exciting advances and prospects for the future have been described in the report "Current and Future Research Directions in High-Pressure Mineral Physics", which can be found at: http://www.compres.stonybrook.edu/Publications/BassReport/Bass_Report_8_31_04.pdf
This report is an outgrowth of the discussions and results of a workshop on "A Vision for High Pressure Earth and Planetary Sciences Research: The Planets from the Surface to the Center" which was held on March 22-23, 2003 in Miami, Florida. The NSF Division of Earth Sciences commissioned and supported this workshop, which was organized by Jay Bass and Donald Weidner of COMPRES (Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences) and attended by fifty-six scientists from throughout the world. The Miami Workshop was held to identify the most promising areas for future discovery, and areas that are ripe for future technological breakthroughs. The report was edited by Jay Bass based on input from the participants at the Workshop, and is intended to be a statement by the high-pressure earth science community on the status of this field and some of its most exciting and challenging research directions for the near future. As such, it serves as the strategic science plan for COMPRES. A poster illustrating the central themes of the Bass report may be found at:
http://www.compres.stonybrook.edu/Publications/Monthly%20Messages%20from%20COMPRES%20President/compres_poster_3.8.05.pdf.
At the onset of the 21st century, mineral physicists find themselves with many challenging research problems and many exciting opportunities for research at high pressures and temperatures, made possible in large measure by the COMPRES-facilitated access to synchrotron and neutron facilities at the national laboratories of the Department of Energy. To exploit such technologies to pursue research in the Earth Sciences required a change in the culture of high-pressure experimental research. Until recently, the “cottage industry” model served as the primary mode of operation: a scientist worked with a few students and/or postdocs, together in a laboratory at their home institution.
COMPRES has changed all that in a very brief period of time for high-pressure geophysics because it has opened up these facilities in a way that makes them available to a broad cross section of the community in an affordable way. The emerging new paradigm demands a different strategy including advanced preparation of samples and experiments, weeks in “the field” (at the national facility), sleepless nights, and CDs full of data. Following the experimental runs at the beamline, the fatigued team returns home for weeks of data analysis. This new mode requires re-education to enable all scientists, from student to senior faculty, to effectively participate in this new culture. The community-based approach to organizing these scientific efforts adopted by the embryonic COMPRES community in 2001 has proven to be so successful that in just 4 brief years after the initial funding of COMPRES, leaders of the DOE synchrotrons consult with COMPRES about how best to implement the new DOE rules for operating their beamlines.
B. History and Evolution of COMPRES
COMPRES, the Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences, was formed in part as a response to these new scientific and technological opportunities and developments, and this new style of conducting high-pressure science. Starting with a Town Meeting at the Fall 2000 AGU Meeting in San Francisco organized by the AGU Mineral and Rock Physics Committee, the planning process began in earnest with a workshop at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla in February 2001 and culminated in a successful proposal to the NSF Division of Earth Sciences in August 2001. In May 2002, a Cooperative Agreement was promulgated which projected funding for COMPRES for a five-year period to April 2007.
COMPRES is a community-based consortium that supports research in the materials properties of earth and planetary interiors with particular emphasis on high-pressure science and technology and related fields. The Consortium currently has 53 members that are educational or governmental institutions in the U. S. with research and educational programs in the science of Earth materials. There are also 33 foreign affiliate institutions.
COMPRES is charged with the oversight and guidance of important high-pressure laboratories at several national facilities, such as synchrotrons and neutron sources. It facilitates the operation of beam lines, the development of new technologies for high-pressure research, and advocates for science and educational programs to the various U. S. funding agencies, including NSF, DOE, DOD and NASA. The community-wide organization of mineral and rock physics introduced by COMPRES is directly analogous to centralization of efforts in other geophysical sciences, such as the coordination of seismic data distribution and instrument deployment orchestrated by IRIS, the Incorporated Research Institutions of Seismology.
The two major COMPRES programs are overseen by two Standing Committees for Community Facilities and for Infrastructure Development Projects. These Standing Committees are elected by the representatives of the U. S. member institutions of COMPRES.
COMPRES supports the operations of high-pressure beamlines at synchrotrons to provide access and support to faculty, students and staff scientists in the earth science community. These operations include: (1) Diamond-anvil facilities at the National Synchrotron Light Source [NSLS] of the Brookhaven National Laboratory; (2) Multi-anvil facilities at the NSLS; and (3) Diamond-anvil facilities at the Advanced Light Source [ALS] of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. COMPRES also supports a neutron studies initiative to cultivate scientific interest in exploiting the new opportunities to come available soon at the Spallation Neutron Source [SNS] of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and coordinates its activities with those of the GeoSoilEnviroCARS [GSECARS] program at the Advanced Photon Source of the Argonne National Laboratory [see joint statement of relationship between GSECARS and COMPRES is given in the Supplementary Documents].
In addition to the operation of community facilities, COMPRES supports infrastructure projects to promote the development of new technologies for high-pressure research, for use in both laboratories in our home institutions and at the national laboratories. Current examples of such infrastructure development projects include: (1) Absolute pressure and temperature calibration; (2) Multi-anvil cell assembly development; (3) Brillouin spectrometer for the APS; (4) Nuclear resonant inelastic X-ray scattering at high pressure and temperature; (5) New CO2 laser-heated diamond-anvil cell; (6) COMPRES environment for automated data analysis, a software development project; (7) Technical support for dual beam focused ion milling facility for TEM foil preparation; (8) Gas-loading system for diamond-anvil cells at the APS; (9) Development of next generation multi-anvil module for megabar research; (10) Calorimetry-on-a-chip; and (11) Monochromatic X-ray side station at the multi-anvil beamline of the NSLS.
While COMPRES derives its primary financial support from the Instrumentation and Facilities Program in the Division of Earth Sciences of the NSF, it leverages the enormous investment of the DOE in constructing and supporting the operation of its national laboratories, notably those at Brookhaven, Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, and Oak Ridge National Laboratories. In addition, members of the COMPRES community have been very successful in obtaining other funding from the NSF, DOE and DOD to enhance the opportunities for research in high-pressure mineral physics.
Under separate funding from the NSF Division of Earth Sciences, scientists in the COMPRES community are pursuing three Grand Challenge collaborative research programs: Growth of large synthetic diamonds by chemical vapor deposition; Rheology of earth materials; Elasticity of earth materials—all at high pressures and temperatures. While these Grand Challenge programs are formally independent from the COMPRES core grant, they are intimately related intellectually as they give prime examples of the scientific problems that can be addressed using the facilities operated and the technological developments funded by COMPRES.
Communication within the mineral physics community includes monthly letters from the President, quarterly newsletters, an active website [http://www.compres.us], and an Annual Meeting. The 2008 COMPRES Annual Meeting at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs attracted 113 active participants, including many young scientists [see photo on COMPRES Home Page]; this photo clearly demonstrates the vitality and diversity of the community of mineral physicists. This meeting included focus sessions on the minerals and volatiles in the mantle, the core and planetary evolution, all of which included keynote talks by leaders in allied geoscience disciplines (seismology, geodynamics, geochemistry, planetary science) followed by group discussion, as well as reports from the Community Facilities and Infrastructure Development projects, breakout session on special topics and poster presentations highlighting the most exciting recent scientific achievements.
C. COMPRES Relationship to National Facilities of the DOE
NSLS:
COMPRES provides funding for operations and equipment upgrades at high-pressure multi-anvil and diamond-anvil X-ray facilities and infrared DAC facilities at the NSLS, under Contributing User Agreements negotiated with the NSLS on behalf of the COMPRES community.
Leading members of the COMPRES community are consulted and engaged in planning and design of the new synchrotron facilities at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, NSLS II [which was highlighted as one of the key new innovations in the American Competitiveness Initiative, February 2006].
ALS:
COMPRES provides funding for operations and equipment upgrades at high-pressure diamond-anvil X-ray facilities at ALS, as a partner in an Approved Program with the University of California and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
GSECARS at the APS:
High pressure mineral physics research at synchrotron X-ray facilities in the U. S. is managed by two organizations supported largely by NSF and DOE: GeoSoilEnviroCARS (GSECARS) at the University of Chicago and COMPRES. GSECARS is a national user facility for frontier research in the earth sciences using the high-brilliance, high energy synchrotron radiation at the third generation Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory.
Together, COMPRES and GSECARS provide strategically vital support to the operations of high-pressure beamlines at synchrotrons, including funding of beamline scientists at the facilities and access and assistance for students, postdocs, etc. in the earth science community. All the beam time at GSECARS and at the COMPRES-supported components at the NSLS and the ALS is open to the general community through proposals to the General User Programs [GUP] at each facility. There are at least two distinct communities served by operations of high-pressure facilities at the national laboratories: (1) General group of users in geosciences [students, postdocs, staff]; (2) Developers of new techniques or those who adapt new technologies developed in other disciplines. The operators of the high-pressure facilities at the national laboratories have an obligation to serve each of these distinct and important communities.
GSECARS and COMPRES collaborate closely through coordination of community development activities and the design, construction and operation of advanced instrumentation through COMPRES-supported infrastructure projects. For example, three major technological tools supported by the COMPRES Infrastructure Development program are being installed at GSECARS or associated space at the APS: (1) a Brillouin spectroscopy system (installed at GSECARS and undergoing commissioning); (2) a CO2 laser heating system (under development at GSECARS); and (3) a gas-loading facility for diamond-anvil cells (in design phase). X-ray optics and software developed at GSECARS are being used at the COMPRES-operated x-ray beamlines at the NSLS. Robert Liebermann, the President of COMPRES, is a GeoCARS representative on the CARS Board of Governors.
A joint statement of the relationship between COMPRES and GSECARS was prepared by the Principal Investigators of the two organizations in January 2006 and endorsed by the Program Director of the Instrumentation and Facilities Program in EAR at the NSF.
High Pressure Summit Meeting
In September 2005, COMPRES convened a meeting among a number of organizations funded by the NSF and/or the DOE which are engaged in developing and operating facilities at national laboratories for high-pressure mineral physics research, including the following:
COMPRES: COnsortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences
GSECARS: GeoSoilEnviron Consortium for Advanced Radiation Sources
HPCAT: High Pressure Collaborative Access Team
SNAP: Spallation Neutrons and Pressure at the Spallation Neutron Source [SNS]
ALS: High-Pressure Partners at the Advanced Light Source
LLNL: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
LANSCE: Los Alamos Neutron Science Center
CHESS: Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source
LCLS: Linac Coherent Light Source at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center [SLAC]
CDAC: Carnegie/DOE Alliance Center
The objectives of the meeting were to describe:
1. The shared and broad missions for high-pressure mineral physics.
2. The structure and responsibilities of the various organizations.
3. The relative roles in the high-pressure community.
4. Current funding status and future needs.
This meeting was held on September 24-25, 2005 in Ronkonkoma, Long Island, New York. As an outcome of this meeting, the attendees prepared a report to the NSF and DOE Program Managers and presented this report in person at the NSF on November 29, 2005. A copy may be found at: http://www.compres.stonybrook.edu/Publications/index.html
Modified November 25, 2008