A series of well-publicized disasters and catastrophes during recent years, including a cyclone in Myanmar, earthquakes in China, Haiti, Chile, and New Zealand, and an earthquake and tsunami in Japan, underscore the importance of efforts to reduce risk from natural hazards around the world. Landslides, floods, drought, wildfire, storms, tsunamis, and earthquakes continue to take a heavy toll in lives and infrastructure. In the past decade, disasters have killed over 750,000 people and caused damage costing hundreds of billions of dollars (Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, 2011).

Part I: The Temporal Record of Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs)

1. Large Igneous Province Record Through Time and Implications for Secular Environmental Changes and Geological Time-Scale Boundaries

Richard E. Ernst, David P. G. Bond, Shuan-Hong Zhang, Kenneth L. Buchan,

Stephen E. Grasby, Nasrrddine Youbi, Hafida El Bilali, Andrey Bekker, and Luc S. Doucet

2. Radiometric Constraints on the Timing, Tempo, and Effects of Large Igneous Province Emplacement

Jennifer Kasbohm, Blair Schoene, and Seth Burgess

The results of mineralogical–technological studies of PGM mineralization in zonal mafic–ultra mafic complexes of the Ural–Alaskan type are given. All studied massifs in the Urals and Kamchatka are characterized by similar evolution of mineral assemblages. The chromite (platinum–chromitite–dunite) and dunite (platinum–pegmatoid dunite) geological–economic types of small platinum deposits and occur rences are separate enriched sites (ore shoots) of largevolume platinum ore deposits. These are rather thick and extended zones of recrystallized dunites with attributes of hightemperature structural deformations and intense fluid reworking.

Since the University of Oulu bought last year a LA-ICP-MS to expand their ways of research concerning corrosion and agglomeration problems in fluidized bed boilers. The objective of this thesis was to give a review about LA-ICP-MS, what are its capabilities, how to calibrate, what are the start up procedures and what kind of measurements can we make? The thesis will discus every step of the LA-ICP-MS; ablation, ionisation and detection applied on the LA-ICP-MS of the University of Oulu. After the literature part we try to improve our measurement strategies with the LAICP-MS, in order to get better results out of it. I would like to thank the University of Oulu for giving me the opportunity to write my thesis here. While writing my thesis I had a lot of help from Risto Laitinen, Minna Tiainen, Harri Kola, Heikki Ollila, Mirja Piispanen and Susanna Arvilommi, I would like to thank them for that. Thanks go also to Andoni Michelena and Bert De Smet for reading my thesis through. Finally I would like to thank my parents for their financial and mental support.  <...>