Facilities
The Department of Geosciences has a wide range of equipment for both field work and laboratory analyses. Our major field equipment includes a TOTAL Laser theodolite, high resolution backpack and hand-held GPS systems for detailed topographic surveys, mapping and site location. We also have a ground-pentrating radar system, soil permeameter, electronic current meter, magnetic susceptibility system, a variety of water/sediment sampling instruments, and several coring instruments including vibra-corer, piston and gravity-corers, and soil augers. Our pontoon boat provides access to local lakes. Major laboratory instrumentation includes a laser diffractometer for measuring particle size, an X-ray diffractometer for mineralogy, a suite of petrographic microscopes, sieving, rock cutting, and thin section equipment.
The Geosciences Department houses a state-of-the-art Cartography/GIS computer lab with nineteen workstations. All of these stations are equipped with the latest ArcView GIS and Minitab statistical analysis software. Other major Department assets include a seismometer and suite of weather instruments. The Department also is home to an excellent fossil and mineral collection.
