Departmental Laboratories and Analytical Facilities

The Department is housed in Vanderbilt's natural science complex and shares analytical equipment with Chemistry and Engineering.  Experimental and analytical facilities are readily accessible to graduate students.  They include the following:

Transport Phenomena • Fluid dynamics and sediment transport laboratory with stream table, particle settling tanks and a specialized "fluid intrusion" tank, and both high-speed and lapse-rate digital cameras controlled by a high-performance work station

Sedimentary Processes • Sedimentology laboratory including a Geotek multi-sensor core logger featuring magnetic susceptibility, core density by gamma attenuation, and a multi-spectral digital camera • Malvern laser-diffraction particle-size analyzer • Edgetech 216s sub-bottom chirp profiler for high-resolution stratigraphic imaging in aqueous environments • two Ortec planar gamma detectors for radionuclide geochronology • Sea-Bird salinity-temperature-depth water-column profiler with optical backscatter for suspended sediment concentrations

Paleoecology and Paleoenvironments • We are a member of the Hancock Biological Station consortium on Kentucky Lake, which has a full complement of field and analytical equipment for collecting and analyzing sediment and biological samples, as well as aquaria and greenhouses • Laboratory with binocular microscopes, fossil collections, and X-radiography unit for burrow analysis.

Magmatic Processes and Crustal Evolution • Petrology lab with transmitted and reflected-light optical microscopes • film and digital photomicroscopy apparatus • mineral separation facilities including Franz magnetic separator, heavy liquids • rock saws, rock chipping and milling equipment • equipment for scaled tank experiments using viscous liquids

Geochemical Processes • Experimental petrology lab including high-temperature furnaces, piston cylinder apparatus, hydrothermal diamond anvil cell, four cold seal pressure vessel systems, fluid inclusion heating/cooling stage • Environmental geochemistry lab, including separate spaces for solid and aqueous sample processing [soil, sediment, water sampling gear; cold sample storage; environmental chamber (glove box); centrifuge; microwave acid digestion capability; portable spectrophotometer]

Other Analytical Facilities • Laser Ablation ICP-MS and TGA-MS • Scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive and backscattered detectors • Powder X-ray diffractometer with high-temperature furnace attachment • Atomic absorption spectrometers (flame and graphite furnace) • Ion and Gas chromatographs and TOC analyzer • Eight alpha detectors for radionuclide analyses

General Equipment • GPS units with integrated topographic map software • GIS lab with large format digitizers, scanners, plotter • networked microcomputers and server • Worden gravimeter

Collaborative use of external facilities • SHRIMP (Sensitive High-Resolution Ion Microprobe) at Stanford University • Ion Microprobe at UCLA. • Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory

For a photo gallery of analytical equipment click here.