Facilities and Equipment
Computing
The department has numerous computer facilities operating on its own local network. They are supported by the university's main IT systems.
An industry-sponsored seismic exploration research effort within the department (the CREWES project) operates many seismic and processing interpretation systems including an 130 processor Linux cluster.
Various industry software packages are available for use on the department's computers supporting geophysics, hydrology, petroleum and petrophysics teaching and research.
Equipment lists
- 64 monocular Leitz petrographic microscopes
- 18 Zeiss binocular microscopes, fibre lighting
- 18 Wild M3 binocular microscopes, fibre lighting
- 18 Leitz binocular microscopes, fibre lighting
- A total of five Wild M5 binocular microscopes
- 10 binocular reflected/transmitted dual source petrographic microscopes
- Dual teaching Wild binocular microscope
- Javelin Chromachip CCTV camera, with Sony Trinitron TV monitor
- Nikon Coolpix 4500 digital camera
- Lecia M400 stereoscope
- Leitz Laborlux petrographic microscope
- Nikon Coolpix 4500 digital camera
- Canon Powershot G6 digital camera
- Associated computers and software
- JEOL JXA 8200 electron microprobe
- Denton DV-502A evaporator
- MR Semicon Lab One polisher
- Edwards Sputter Coater S150B
The fee structure for the Electron Microprobe Lab is the following:
- Internal rate (U of C accounts): $40 per hour daytime - $20 per hour evenings and weekends
- External rate (other academic or gov’t): $50 per hour daytime - $25 per hour evenings and weekends (+GST)
- Commercial rate: $300 per hour (+GST)
View our tutorial on the Fundamentals of Electron Microprobe Analysis (EMPA)
- FEI Quanta 250 FEG-VP-SEM
- Bruker SDD-5030 energy dispersive spectrometer
- Gatan MonoCL4 cathodoluminescence detector
- Alto 2500 Cryotransfer system
- Rigaku Multiflex X-ray diffractometer
- Clay separation equipment
- Hotpack furnace
- Edwards vacuum freeze drier
- Sonics and material ultrasonic processor
- Damon centrifuge
Fee structure for XRD Lab: $30 per hour
- Franz magnetic separator
- Struers PDM Force 20 and Roto Pol
- Bico disk mill
- Logitech section preparation systems
- Various disk and wire saws, lap wheels, accessory equipment for sectioning
- Coring machine
- Grinder
- Struers grinding/polishing system
- T.M. Engineering jaw crusher
- Dayton small crusher
- Hydraulic rock press
- Bico chipmunk jaw crusher
- Gemini Goldharvester water table
- Wig'l Bug mill
- 450-Gas Chromatographer (GC) Bruker and 456 - GC Scion Instruments with Bruker Autosampler
- Varian 725-ES Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrophotometer (ICP-OES)
- Pressure Reactor Parr 4848 Reactor Controller
- TIC-TOC O-I-Analytical Aurora Model 1030 with Autosampler Model 1088
- Warming bath Thermo Scientific Precision CIR 35
- Thermo Scientific Dionex ICS-5000
- Dionex ICS 2000 ion chromatograph (Dionex Corporation)
- Mettler Toledo T70 Auto-titrator
- Gilson Mandel Scientific 402 Auto-dillutor dispenser
- Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry (Bruker Daltonics Apex Ultra 12Tesla)
- Agilent GCMS (6890 GC and 5973n MS)
- Thermo electron, LTQ mass spectrometer and surveyor LC system
- Mettler Toledo professional balance MX5
- Mandel, Biofuge Stratos centrifuge with SS-34 fixed angle rotor
- Soxhlet extraction system
- CycloGraph Centrifugal Chromatography system
Seismic
- 600 channel Aries seismic acquisition system
- IVI EnviroVibe seismic source
- Support vehicles (two x cable trucks, one recording truck and one Vibe tender)
- Bison II EWG seismic source
- Betsy Seisgun seismic source
- Geometrics Strataview 60 seismic recording system
- 120 channel Geometric Geode system
Non-seismic
- Sensors and Software Pulse EKKO 100 GPR
- Sensors and Software Pulse EKKO IV GPR
- Sensors and Software Noggin 250 with SmartCart GPR
- Sensors and Software Pulse EKKO Pro
- Tektronics TDS420A oscilloscope (x 2)
- Geonics EM31 ground conductivity meter with digital datalogger
- Geonics EM 38 ground conductivity meter with digital datalogger
- Scintrex ENVI magnetometer
- CTS system SQUID magnetometer
- Worden gravimeter
- Wild T!A with Distomat survey equipment
- Sokia Differential GPS
- Time Domain Electromagnetic system
- Chevrolet 4 x 4 one ton flat deck
- GMC 4 x 4 one ton with cage
- Gas permeameter
- Gas porosimeter
- Uniaxial press
- Electo hydraulic pump
- Strain measurement equipment (Keyence displacement sensors, contact displacement sensors, associated computer and software)
- Seismic velocity equipment (ultrasonic pulser/receiver, transducers, load cell panel meter, oscilloscope and associated computer and software)
- Physical modeling system (elastic and acoustical)
- Blastmate vibration detector
- A downhole microseismic field acquisition system manufactured by ESG Solutions including a toolstring assembly with 12 three-components geophones, a two kilometre wireline and winch system, a Palladin data acquisition unit and thermo-electric generator to enable long-term passive seismic field deployments of up to one year. Note that this is the only university-owned microseismic field system in the world.
- Alberta Telemetered Seismograph Network. Nine broadband seismograph observatories comprised of Trillium T-240 seismometers and Taurus seismograph units for data digitizing, storage and telemetered communications.
- Five portable seismograph units that include Taurus seismographs, solar panels and Trillium Compact seismometers.
- Trase 6050X/MiniTrase 6050S3K1 Time Domain Reflectometer
- Kipp and Zonen Net radiometers
- Campbell Scientific CSAT 3Sonic anemometer
- Campbell Scientific KH20 ultraviolet krypton hygrometer
- Campbell Scientific dataloggers (CR23X, CR3000)
- Campbell Scientific weather stations
- Constant temperature oven
- Top loading balances
- 36” colour plotter
- 42” HP T610 colour plotter (research)
- Agilent 7700 quadrupole mass spectrometer
- ASI Alphachron helium extraction line
- ASI Resochron excimer laser ablation system
- Zemetrics Zygo optical profilometer
- Zeiss cold-cathode luminescence microscope with digital camera
- Zeiss AxioImager M2M with digital camera
- Autoscan Fission Track system
- Zeiss SteREO Discovery. V20 with digital camera
- Chemistry lab for apatite and zircon digestion