Facilities

The Geology Department occupies offices and research laboratories fully equipped with up-to-date equipment for nearly all standard methods of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, and hydrology. Among facilities and equipment available for research are the following:

Rock and Geochemical: Perkin-Elmer atomic absorption spectrophotometer; G.E. and Rigaku x-ray diffractometers: Cambridge Stereoscan scanning electron microscope; Zeiss photomicroscope; Wild low-power photomicroscope; ore microscopy lab including a Zeiss reflectance microscope with heating/freezing stage; Zeiss research microscope; thin section prep lab; rock crushing, grinding, and powdering equipment; 2 high temperature furnaces; Rigaku X-Ray fluorescence spectrometer; sieves and Rotap; and a photographic darkroom.

Paleomagnetics: Field-Free Room: Lodestar Magnetics Shielded Room 13 x 11 feet interior, 350 nT internal field low-field environment for measurement of weakly-magnetic rocks and sediments. Cryogenic Magnetometer: 2-G Enterprises Model 755 Superconducting Rock Magnetometer liquid-helium cooled single-sample 3-axis, sensitive to 0.001 mA/m. AF Demagnetizer: D-Tech D-2000 Alternating Field demagnetizer 0-200 mT peak field DC coil for (p) ARM computer controlled large coil holds 2-3 samples. Thermal Demagnetizer: RFB-1 Thermal Demagnetizer A non-inductively-wound, shielded over 2 chambers, 20 sample capacity Temperature range: 20 - 700 C water and air cooled internal field < 5 nT. Magnetic Anisotropy: AGICO KLY3-S Magnetic Susceptibility Bridge sensitivity 5x10-8 SI (vol) units measures AMS of 20 samples per hour. CS-3 Furnace: measures k vs T range: 40 to 700 C. Spinner Magnetometer: Schonstedt SSM-1A Fluxgate Spinner Magnetometer measures remanence > 1 mA/m acquired 1971 computer interface: a fully functioning CROMEMCO Z-2D operating system: CROMIX (Y2K compliant). View pictures of the equipment by visiting the paleomagnetic page.

Field Geophysics: Geophysical Survey Systems SIR-2000 Ground Penetrating Radar with 400 MHz and 200 MHz antennae; Worden Model lll Gravity Meter; Bison Series 7000 Signal Stacking Seismograph; Soil Test Model R-50 D.C. Resistivity Meter; EG&G Geometrics G-846 Magnetometer (Unimag ll); two Trimble 5700 receivers and Zephyr geodetic antennas. The department also has its own seismic station housing an EAI S102 vertical axis seismometer.

Mapping and Survey: Two Pathfinder Pro XR and 14 Trimble GeoExplorer 3 GPS units; Lieca TC600 total station theodolite; Trimble 5700 RTK GPS total station.

Hydrology and Hydrogeochemistry: A QED Micro-purge well-water sampling system and an ISCO 3700C with a Hydrolab for automated flow monitoring and stream-water sampling. Two Gurley Pygmy and two Gurley Price AA current meters; water-level tapes; pressure transducer and data logger; permeameters; well-water sampling pumps; Boss GMS Groundwater Modeling software; YSI model 85 water analyzer and an Orion 250A meter; Davis EZ-Mount Energy EnviroMonito weather station; skiff and motor. We also cooperate with The Institute for Watershed Studies which has a Washington State certified water quality lab.

Surface Processes: A Malvern Mastersizer 2000 automated laser particle-size analyzer; map and aerial photo interpretation lab; photo lab; coring systems (Livingston piston corer and Reasoner piston corer); Bartington MS2-C magnetic susceptibility meter; Loss-on-ignition organic carbon analyzer; SEM; cold room storage; survey equipment; sieve stamper; and a large wave tank for studying beach processes.

Computers and Software: In addtion to university computer labs, geology students have special access to three computer labs, which include: 1) the Spatial-Analysis lab with 22 PCs having Arcinfo, PCI, and S-Plus, 2) the Geo-Computer lab with two HP scanners, slide scanner; digitizer, one Power Macintosh G3 and 8 PCs with software tools including: Surfer, Arcview, AutoCAD, Mathcad, Photoshop and Illustrator and 3) the Physics-Geo (Wilder) Computer lab with 20 PCs. The department also has three Sun workstations for computational research, a digital film recorder for 35mm slide production, and access to a HP 3800 CP large-format color plotter.