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Geological Sciences

Major Facilities	Description
X-Ray Diffraction (Xrd) Laboratory	The XRD laboratory employs a Rigaku MiniFlex 600 XRD. This instrument analyzes powdered samples for their mineralogy and crystal structure.
Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (Icp-Oes) Laboratory	The ICP-OES laboratory employs a Thermo Scientific 7400 Duo ICP-OES spectrometer. This instrument analyzes the elemental composition of cations in aqueous solutions.
X-Ray Fluorescence (Xrf) Laboratory	The XRF laboratory employs a Rigaku Primus XRF spectrometer. This instrument analyzes the elemental composition of cations in prepared glass discs and sintered pellets.
Hydrogeochemistry & Wet Chemistry Laboratories	This laboratory is set up as a general-purpose sample preparation laboratory for aqueous samples. In this laboratory, samples are prepared for stable and radiogenic isotope analysis, solute analysis, gas extraction, etc. Instruments in this laboratory include: • Two Los Gatos DLT-100 cavity ring-down liquid water stable isotope analyzers • Dionex Easion liquid Ion Chromatograph with autosampler • Mettler Toledo GS-10 automatic titrator • CEM MARS6 microwave digestion system • Two Quantulus 1220 low-level liquid scintillation counters
Microscope Laboratory	This laboratory is used to image thin-section samples of rocks and minerals. Three Nikon petrographic microscopes are set up with cameras for imaging purposes. Olympus CellSens software is used to capture and process images. A ThermoFisher iS50 FTIR and RaptIR instruments are also present in this laboratory.
Sedimentology Laboratory	This laboratory is used to analyze sedimentary rock samples for porosity, permeability, and for carbon content. Three instruments enable these analyses. They are Wildcat Technologies Hawk Pyrolysis & TOC instrument, Core Lab Ultra-Perm 500 permeameter and Ultrapore 300 porosimeter.
Geological Sample Preparation Laboratory	This laboratory is used to prepare solid samples, such as rock, soil, and sediment, for analysis via a wide range of analytical techniques. Equipment in this lab includes rocks saws, a coring drill press, a Wilfley Table, rock grinding and polishing equipment, various rock crushers, magnetic separators, heavy liquids mineral separation, and a Katanax glass disc furnace.
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Laboratory	The GPR laboratory is used to store and stage GPR equipment as well as analyze collected GPR data. Equipment includes a 50 MHz Sensors & Software GPR unit, 100-200- and 400-MHz Geometrics GPR units.
Seismic Laboratory	The seismic laboratory is used to store and stage equipment used to acquire seismic data. This includes cabling, geophones, seismometers, power sources (batteries, solar power, etc.), and computer systems used to operate the equipment. Four seismic thumpers, ranging from 75 lbs. to 550 lbs., are used as sound sources.
Paleontology Museum	Located adjacent to Lavell Edwards Stadium, the BYU Museum of Paleontology (ESM) is an official repository for fossils found on lands administered by the State of Utah, the Bureau of Land Management, and the National Forest Service. The fossil vertebrate collection is comprised of over 17,000 specimens ranging from Devonian fish (380 million years ago) to Pleistocene mammoths and cave fossils (15,000 years ago). Although the collections contain a variety of animals, the primary focus has been on dinosaurs from the Intermountain West. Most research is focused on Upper Jurassic dinosaurs from the Morrison Formation, and Early Cretaceous dinosaurs from the Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah and Colorado.
Significant Equipment	Description
Field Equipment and Vehicles	The department owns several vehicles for use in off-campus research activities. This includes 3 full-size GMC vans, 1 full-size GMC pickup, 1 full-size Polaris Ranger, 2 Honda Foreman ATVs, 1 white water inflatable pontoon boat, 1 Montego Bay pontoon boat, and several trailers used for hauling equipment and boats or ATVs. In addition, other field equipment includes several sediment coring devices (Wink Vibracorer, Livingstone corer, Bolivia corer, AMS percussion corer) as well as a plethora of camping equipment.
Long-Term Teaching and Research Collection	Currently the department has 5000 sq. ft. of high density movable storage for current and long-term teaching and research collections. The teaching collections are used in most lower and upper division geology classes. Samples include rocks from every major rock classification as well as over 75 different rock forming minerals. The department curates one of the most complete collections of igneous rocks from the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau physiographic provinces. In addition, there is a collection of several thousand pure mineral specimens available for research and educational purposes. These specimens encompass all major mineral groups.

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