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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Development And Distribution Of Thermometry Hardware For The Simons Observatory, Samuel Day-Weiss Aug 2021

Development And Distribution Of Thermometry Hardware For The Simons Observatory, Samuel Day-Weiss

The Yale Undergraduate Research Journal

The Simons Observatory (SO) is a new cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment consisting of four telescopes. SO is being constructed at an elevation of 5,190 meters on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in Chile, and is set to begin observation in 2022. SO will employ 60,000 detectors, yielding a sensitivity greater than all previous CMB experiments. To achieve low noise performance the telescope cryostats will be cooled to ~100 mK using low temperature dilution refrigerators. Measuring cryostat temperatures is essential for pre-deployment testing, telescope installation, and telescope monitoring during observation. The purpose of this project is to design, build, …


Solving The Mystery Of The Atacama Nitrate Deposits: The Use Of Stable Oxygen Isotope Analysis And Geochemistry, Ji-Hye Seo Jul 2011

Solving The Mystery Of The Atacama Nitrate Deposits: The Use Of Stable Oxygen Isotope Analysis And Geochemistry, Ji-Hye Seo

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

The Atacama Desert, Chile, one of the oldest and driest deserts on Earth, is unique because it contains the largest known nitrate deposits in the world. The origin of these nitrate deposits has been a mystery since their discovery in the 1800s. There are two possible sources of natural nitrate: microbiological processes and photochemical reactions. The majority of material on Earth follows mass-dependent fractionation between stable oxygen isotopes with the abundance of 17Ο (denoted by δ) as half that of 18O. This relationship is quantified by Δ17O = δ17O – ½ δ18O, …


Mineralogy And Micromorphology Of An Atacama Desert Soil, Chile: A Model For Hyperarid Pedogenesis, Michael S. Howell Jan 2009

Mineralogy And Micromorphology Of An Atacama Desert Soil, Chile: A Model For Hyperarid Pedogenesis, Michael S. Howell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Atacama Desert is the oldest and driest desert on Earth. Hyperarid soils in this desert are dominated by rare (or exclusive) salt minerals and assemblages. Previous research details salt origins and abundance, however pedogenic processes involved in salt distribution are not adequately explained. Therefore, the main goal of this investigation was to identify and document evidence for hyperarid pedogenesis (via salt mineralogy and soil micromorphology) at a field site, Oficina Ercilla, located ~80 km northeast of Antofagasta, Chile within the Central Depression and hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert. This study presents an interpretational model for hyperarid pedogenesis, which …