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The ANU overall has one of the best arrays of analytical and experimental equipment in the world.
The Department of Earth & Marine Science is comprehensively equipped for most of the
research that is done in the
department. When other sites on campus such as the Research School of Earth Sciences provide
facilities that are complementary or more appropriate, access can be arranged.
Within the department, equipment is in general operated and maintained by a small,
multi-tasking team of technical staff. Students who require a facility more than
occasionally are encouraged to become trained in its use, although the extent to
which this is appropriate obviously depends on the technique, complexity of sample
preparation and data analysis, the individual student and what stage they are at
in their work.
Thin Section Laboratory
 Rock crushing and milling facilities
polishing and thin sections
Optical microscopes
- Petrographic microscopes are equipped with polarisers in the light
path before and after the sample. Change in specimen colour with polarisation
direction of the light (pleochroism) and the interference colours between crossed polars
that are caused by birefringence in the sample are extremely important
identification techniques.
Micropaleontology and Limnology
- State of the art micropaleontological laboratory and microfossil
collection from The Australian region.
- Low-temperature room for growing micro-organisms in marine waters for geochemical analysis.
- Standard range of equipment for limnological investigations of inland waters.
Coral Reef and Marine Carbonate Geochemistry
- 18Hp hydraulic drill for shallow (5-15m) drilling of soft rocks,
used for taking core samples from coral reefs in order to
investigate their growth histories.
- Portable Mtrom auto-titrator for analysing carbonate chemistry of marine waters.
X-ray Laboratory
X-ray Laboratory
Fluid Inclusion Laboratory
- Two Piston-cylinder uniaxial presses. In these, very small samples can be compressed
to pressures of over 2 GPa (20,000 atmospheres) and temperatures of 1500oC,
allowing syntheses and reactions to be performed at conditions approximating those
of the deep crust.
- Cold-seal bombs. For larger-volume experiments at high pressure and temperature
incorporating fluids.
- 1-atmosphere furnace
- Sample preparation facilities
Geochemical Laboratory
- Wet chemical laboratory
- XRF pressed-pellet
and fused-disk making facilities. X-ray
fluorescence spectroscopy requires a few grams of sample, either a pressed
pellet of fine, homogeneous rock powder, or a glass disk made by dissolving
the rock powder in molten lithium borate.
- XRF spectrometer
for major and trace elements in whole rocks.
XRF cannot be used for very light elements (below Na in atomic number, usually)
but can quantitatively determine heavier elements down to ppm levels.
- ICP-Mass Spectrometer with Laser Ablation Unit. A
UV laser is focused onto a small spot (tens – hundreds of mm) in a flat
sample such as a thin section of rock. The atomised spot is then sucked into
the argon plasma torch of the Mass Spectrometer, which allows chemical analysis
(including light elements and others that are difficult to measure by other
techniques ) down to parts per billion levels.
- ICP-Atomic Emission
Spectrometer for
simultaneous analysis of multiple trace elements in liquid samples down to
parts per billion.
- Volatile Analyser for water and
carbon content determination, and quantitative analysis of volatile-rich minerals.
Graphical Information System
- Computerised mapping equipment and image processing systems, used to study everything
from thousand million years old rocks to today's floods, bushfires and land use.
- A0 digitising tables & printers, with a large array of commercial GIS and Remote sensing
software.
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