Faculty Research Facilities
The Marine Geology Laboratory (Hovan) houses standard equipment necessary for the wet chemical and x-ray analysis of deep-sea sedimentary deposits including a complete collection of sieves and sieve shakers, ultrasonic baths, ceramic rock crusher and homogenizer, hot circulating shaker baths, petrographic and binocular microscopes, large volume centrifuges, and a freeze drying apparatus. Faculty and students also have access to the NSF-funded IUP X-Ray Laboratory housing an automated Bruker D8 powder x-ray diffractometer.
The Paleontology Research Laboratory (Taylor) in Weyandt Hall contains standard equipment for mechanical preparation of macrofossils and chemical extraction of microfossils, digital stereophotography of fossil specimens, and space for archival storage of collections. The facility also includes individual workstations that are assigned to students conducting their undergraduate research projects in paleontology or stratigraphy.
The Geochemistry Research Laboratory (Poage) is a newly renovated facility with a fume hood, drying ovens, standard wet chemistry equipment, colorimeters, muffle furnaces and a stable isotope vacuum extraction line for preparation of a wide array of natural materials. In addition, we have received funding for the purchase of a Perkin Elmer Optima 2100 DV ICP-OES to be installed in Spring 2007.
The Structural Geology and Tectonics Laboratory (Lewis) houses a G5 Macintosh computer for inverse modeling of earthquake and fault kinematic data, and a research grade Nikon petrographic microscope for microstructural analysis. The microscope is outfitted with both a fluid inclusion and a cathodoluminescence stage. The lab also houses a G4 Macintosh laptop and an Xplore iX104 C2 AllVue Tablet PC outfitted with an integrated GPS antenna, both available for field mapping projects or field-based coursework.
The Planetary Science Laboratory (Coles) includes a 20-cm research-grade computerized Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, video and still cameras for night sky and solar imaging with telescopes, video time inserters, a digital library of planetary images, and computer facilities for image and video editing.
Other Facilities and Equipment
The I.U.P. Planetarium seats 75 under a 9-meter dome equipped with a Spitz A3P projector. The planetarium is used extensively in astronomy and planetary science classes for majors in the Geoscience Department, campus-wide survey courses, and in programs for the general public. Portable telescopes for use in the teaching program include two 3.5-inch Questars, a Coronado Hydrogen-alpha telescope, a 5-inch Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope, and several other Newtonian and refractor telescopes.
Because field work is a large component of our programs in geology and oceanography, the department is equipped with four twelve-passenger vans; camping gear, geologic mapping equipment, and oceanographic instruments such as sediment corers and grabs, submarine photometers, and wave/tide analyzers.
Student laboratory equipment and facilities include a recently upgraded computer lab, petrographic microscopes for viewing rock samples in thin section, binocular microscopes for viewing fossil specimens in three dimensions, and a fully equipped rock preparation lab in which students can prepare their own fossil and rock specimens.
