Research Facilities
The Department of Earth Sciences is loosely divided into three working
research divisions, with numerous laboratories and research facilities at the disposal of department personnel. However, many faculty and students also work across these disciplinary boundaries.
Analytical and Experimental Laboratories
| Facility |
Location |
Description |
Contact |
| Electron Microprobe Laboratory |
POST 621 |
Micron-scale quantitative major and minor element analysis of minerals, glasses, and other solid materials. |
Peng Jiang |
| Isotope Biogeochemistry Laboratory |
POST 724, 725, 726 |
Stable isotope analyses of geologic and oceanographic samples including C, N, and H isotope analyses of individual compounds. |
Brian Popp
Natalie Wallsgrove |
| Isotope Laboratory |
POST 637, 638, 604 |
Radiogenic/Radioactive/Heavy-stable isotope analysis for volcanology, petrology, geochronology, paleooceanography, and other applications. |
Aaron Pietruszka
Maksim Kuznetsov
Kenna Rubin
|
| MC-ICP-MS Laboratory |
POST 630 |
Isotope geochemistry and environmental chemistry by multi-collector plasma ionization mass spectrometry. |
Ken Rubin
Aaron Pietruszka |
| Experimental Petrology Laboratory |
POST 730 |
Volcanology and petrology using experiments. |
Julia Hammer |
| Physical Volcanology |
POST 622, 623 |
Rock crushing and powdering. |
Bruce Houghton |
| Seismic Processing and Analysis Laboratory |
POST 834 |
Computer hardware and software for processing and analysis of seismic reflection/refraction data. |
Robert Dunn
Greg Moore |
| Mineral Geochemistry Laboratory |
POST 632 |
Inorganic and biological mineral separation and processing for geochronology and isotope geochemistry. |
Ken Rubin |
Sea-Going Facilities
The following research vessels and their supporting shipboard technical group, are available to researchers for gathering geophysical, geochemical and other open ocean and coastal data and samples:
Sea-going instrumentation includes equipment for digital seismic reflection, gravity, magnetics, coring, dredging, and water column studies, the HAWAII MR1 side-scan sonar system, and fiber optic-based deep-towed FOCUS camera system. In addition, software is available for multi-channel seismic processing and geophysical data analysis.
Students are encouraged to take advantage of opportunities for cooperative, interdisciplinary research. Cooperative research is also carried out with other units of the University and federal laboratories in Hawaii. Some of these are:
