IN SITU X-RAY AND IR PROBES RELEVANT TO EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES AT THE ADVANCED LIGHT SOURCE AT LAWRENCE BERKELEY LABORATORY

Access to synchrotron facilities has become an important aspect for many disciplines in experimental Earth and environmental science. This is especially important for studies that rely on probing samples in situ under natural conditions different from the ones found at the surface of the Earth. The Earth and environmental science program at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, offers a variety of tools utilizing the infrared, soft- and hard X-ray spectrum that allow Earth scientists to probe Earth and environmental materials at variable conditions of pressure, stress, temperature, atmospheric composition, and humidity. These facilities are important tools for the user community in that they offer not only considerable capacity (e.g. diffraction and X-ray microscopy) but also complementary (IR spectroscopy, microtomography), and in some cases unique (Laue microdiffraction) instruments.