Research Facilities
Departmental Lab Facilities
Virtual Earth Research Facility - resources include:
Subsurface Geology and Geological Engineering Laboratory - resources include:
- Computer lab with PC workstations for 15 users, with the Schlumberger software packages: Eclipse, Petrel, PIPESIM, Techlog, and Ocean.
Geomechanics Laboratory - resources include:
- Equipment includes soil shear box, Roctest point load devise, Schmidt hammers, rock-shear strength apparatus, fiber optic strain and thermal sensors
Other Departmental Laboratories
- Ground water laboratory with digital and analytical modeling capabilities
- Sample processing lab with rock saws, rock crushers and polishing wheels
- Optical petrology lab with research quality optical microscopes and imaging software
Major Field Equipment and Facilities
- On-campus operational well field with data loggers and transducers
- Van-mounted geoprobe unit
- 10 Trimble Juno SB GPS units
- 3D photogrammetric camera system
- Ground-based LIDAR camera
- Ground-probing radar
- Hydrologic analysis system
- Portable wind tunnel
- Mobile drilling rig
Other Research Facilities on-campus
- Biogeochemistry Core Facility houses modern, cutting-edge instrumentation to support student and faculty ecological and environmental 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, fluid inclusion microthermometry, 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.