Research Facilities

Departmental Lab Facilities

Subsurface Flow and Transport Modeling Laboratory - resources include:

• GMS, MODFLOW, and AQTESOLV analytical software.  On-campus operational well field (piezometers and pumped well) with data loggers and pressure transducers.  Sandtank models.
• Bailers, well sampling equipment, water level measurement, sonic water level indicator.

Virtual Earth Research Facility - resources include:

• Computer lab with PC workstations for 15 users with additional three Hess workstations (Shared with Subsurface Laboratory), with ArcGIS and ENVI software, a large format roll scanner and a large format ink jet plotter
• Linux workstations for processing satellite-based radar data (InSAR)

Subsurface Geology and Geological Engineering Laboratory - resources include:

• Computer lab with PC workstations for 15 users with additional three Hess workstations (Shared with Virtual Earth), with the Schlumberger software packages: Eclipse, Petrel, PIPESIM, Techlog, and Ocean.  Three Baker Hughes workstations with JewelSuite Subsurface Modeling software.
  
• Ground-penetrating radar, 24 channel seismic recorder, Proton precession magnetometer.
• High-precision Core Analysis Apparatus (HPCA) for measuring gas permeability and porosity of rock cores.
  

Geomechanics Laboratory - resources include:

• Soil shear box, Roctest point load device, Schmidt hammers, rock-shear strength apparatus, and vibrating wire extensometers.  GCTS Triaxial Load Frame system with pulse-decay permeameter.
• Mobile drilling rig (auger).
• 3D photogrammetry system, 3D modeling system using a quad-copter, ground-based LiDAR scanner (Shared with Virtual Earth).

High Performance Computing Laboratory

The Numerical Modeling Research Team operates an externally-supported High Performance Computing laboratory that is specifically designed for parallel execution of Finite Element Model-based forward and inverse analyses of geophysical data.  Resources include:

• Hephaestus: LINUX OS with 48-core CPU node, 196GB RAM, GPU node with 7 GPU cards, and 10x teraflop performance. Hephaestus resides in a hermetically-sealed vault with three-phase power conditioning and UPS backup. Software includes:
  
• Heavy workstations equipped with 12-core CPUs, 96GB RAM, and GPU cards.
  
• Software for Numerical Modeling includes:
   - Abaqus (finite element analysis)
   - IDL (General Purpose data analysis)
   - Rhino3D (industry-standard CAD)
   - Petrel (reservoir simulation)
   - ISCE (InSAR processing code from NASA JPL)

Experimental Petrology Laboratory - resources include:

• Two one-atmosphere quench and gas-mixing furnaces
• Lindberg Platinum horizontal furnace and Lindberg box furnace
• Mini torch/welding tool for capsules
• Optical microscopes and imaging software
• Sample processing lab with rock saws, rock crushers, and polishing wheels, 0.1mg scale

Other Research Facilities On-Campus and Nearby

• Shimadzu Environmental Research Laboratory (SERL) houses instrumentation to support student and faculty ecological, environmental, and biotechnological research.
• Engineering Mining Experiment Station provides analytical and technical services that include x-ray diffraction, 3D x-ray microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, scanning probe microscopy, analytical chemistry and elemental analysis, and visible and near Infrared spectroradiometry.
• The Museum of Geology consists of two distinct components: the public museum and the James E. Martin Paleontology Research Laboratory (MPRL), the latter of which houses four research labs and over 500,000 geological and paleontological specimens.
• Sanford Underground Research Facility provides a dedicated deep underground research laboratory for physics, biology, geology and engineering research.