FACILITIES

The Department of Geology and Astronomy is housed in Boucher Hall and Schmucker Science Center, across the street from the Sykes Student Union Building and a short walk from the Francis Harvey Green Library. Within the department, there are facilities for research and education in geology, atmospheric science, oceanography and astronomy.

Among the facilities available for students are an electron microscopy laboratory equipped with an FEI Quanta 400 Scanning Electron Microscope with the Oxford 400 EDS system, and an FEI Technai 12 Transmission Electron Microscope; outstanding collections of rocks, minerals, and fossils; two travel vans; a sedimentology/stratigraphy analysis laboratory; a geophysics lab with ground velocity station seismograph, portable signal enhancement seismograph, and flux-gate field magnetometer; Portable 14" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope equipped with digital camera and spectrograph, Spitz A4 Planetarium for students and public viewing, Astronomical observatory with a fixed 10" telescope and field telescopes, and collection of field telescopes; a geochemistry laboratory; a petrography laboratory with optical polarizing microscopes and X-ray diffractometer; X-ray fluorescence spectrometer; dark room; mapping laboratory with ArcMap 9, digitizer, reflection projector and drafting facilities; student computer laboratory and research center; and meteorological instruments. For meteorological student research projects and to enhance classroom laboratory activities, students have the opportunity to work with satellite images, Doppler radar graphics, upper level atmospheric readings and detailed surface maps which provide data concerning the conditions of the atmosphere world-wide. The department also operates a local GPS calibration station.

The department also maintains a Telonics Interactive Remote Imaging System (T-RIS) Laboratory in cooperation with the School of Education's Center for Earth Observation Systems. T-RIS is a computer-based earth station with very high resolution picture transmission capabilities that tracks and gathers data from the satellites. The department is one of five sites in the world for this system that is designed primarily for use in science education (grades 4-12).

The department has a complete sample preparation facility. Rock specimens of all sizes may be slabbed on one of four diamond saws. Slabs may be polished for reflected light examination using one of several lap wheels or sectioned on the Beuhler Petrothin thinsection machine and Minimet polisher. The same equipment can be used to prepare samples for examination using electron optic techniques. The lab is also equipped with complete sieving and sample-splitting apparatus for unconsolidated sediments.

This equipment is available for students to use as long as they have obtained permission from the instructor and have received training in the proper and safe use of the instruments.

A student room as well as a student computer laboratory is available to all students enrolled in both Graduate and Undergraduate Programs within the Department of Geology and Astronomy.