Geography - The department has well-equipped laboratories for geographic information systems and remote sensing. The Geographic Information Systems laboratory includes 4 large-board coordinate digitizers; HP ink-jet printers, laser- jet printers, and pen plotters; a cluster of 5 UNIX-based workstations installed with GIS and Image Processing software; graphics terminals and x-terminals networked to the Alphas of the campus mainframe system. The remote sensing laboratory includes zoom transfer scopes, Bausch and Lomb rollfilm and mirror stereoscopes and light tables.
Geophysics - La Coste-Romberg gravimeters (models D and G), Geometric proton magnetometers (base and portable meters), seismic truck with 24-channel refraction unit, drill truck, signal enhancement seismograph, magnetotelluric system, 20 kw Geotronics IP transmitter, resistivity transmitter-receiver, temperature logger, and surveying equipment, portable kinemetric seismographs, seismic stations, well depth sounder, water level data logger.
Laboratory facilities include: testing equipment, recorders, temperature calibration equipment, and thermal conductivity measuring devices, Sun workstations, IBM-PCs, Hewett Packard plotters, digitizers, and a GIS lab.
The Southern California Earthquake Center GIS lab contains a SUN SPARC2 workstation, a Data General workstation, and a GTCO 3648 digitizing table.
Tectonophysics - Equipment includes deformation apparatuses capable of attaining temperatures of 1900 K and pressures of 2GPa, 3GPa and 5GPa, respectively. A new multianvil apparatus provides the capability to achieve 3000 K and 25 GPa, providing experimental access to conditions of the lower mantle. A series of state-of-the-art microscopes has been acquired, including a revolutionary new microscope that allows imaging of thin sections in stereo even at very high magnification. An advanced polishing laboratory for preparation of thin and polished sections is also being developed, including a "syton" polishing system that allows relief-free surfaces to be produced, even with minerals that differ significantly in hardness. The campus is installing in 1995 a new, state-of-the-art analytical electron microscopy facility that will include (1) a Philips CM300, 300kV transmission electron microscope, with a spatial resolution of 2 angstroms and a structural and chemical resolution of 2 nanometers, and (2) a Philips XL30FEG Scanning electron microscope with field emission gun with a spatial resolution of 1.5 nanometers, a structural resolution of less than one micron, and chemical resolution of about 2 microns for bulk specimens, much smaller for thin specimens. Both instruments will be equipped for digital image capture and extensive image processing facilities are available in the campus' Center for Visual Computing.
Petrology - Geochemistry - Geothermics - Norelco X-ray diffractometers and powder cameras; research-model optical polarizing microscopes with reflected light and photomicroscopy accessories; a wet chemical laboratory with UV visible and atomic absorption spectrophotometers; an automated Sieman's SRS-l and a manual Norelco X-ray fluorescence analyzer; Cameca electron microprobe with energy dispersive unit for mineral analyses; a hydrothermal synthesis laboratory with internally and externally heated bombs; one freezing and two heating stages for fluid inclusion studies; a double-focusing, double-collecting mass spectrometer for oxygen, hydrogen, sulfur and carbon isotope ratio measurements, with extraction lines for water, carbonates, sulfides and silicates; quadrupole mass spectrometer for fluid inclusion gas analyses, a mineral separation laboratory including magnetic separators, centrifuges, and heavy liquids. ICP-MS facility for trace element analysis of rocks, soils and waters.
Paleontology - Stratigraphy - Sedimentary Petrology - a 4 x 4 Chevy Suburban, two mass spectrometers for stable isotope analysis, ICP-MS for trace element analysis, X-ray fluorescence analyzer, X-radiograph system, SEM, image analyzing system, cathodoluminoscope, epi-fluorescence and reflected light microscopes, fluid inclusion microscope, atomic absorption spectrophotometers as well as fully equipped, standard sedimentological and paleontological laboratories. Preparation room, acid room, flume, microscope and photographic darkroom. Comprehensive invertebrate and vertebrate fossil collections.
Geomorphology - Quaternary Geology - Environmental Geology - field equipment includes: EDM Wild T1000/D1000 theodolite/distomat with automatic data logger as well as standard survey equipment; Motorola two-way radios; GPS navigational system, Compaq LTE 386 laptop computer; various open-channel hydrologic equipment (T-L-C and current velocity meters); soil augers, penetrameters, and moisture probe as well as standard materials for soil morphology descriptions.
Laboratory facilities include: Macintosh Quadra 900; HP Vectra 386 with Draftpro DXL plotter; Lasico digitizer and planimeter; particle size determination analysis facility including Micromeritics Sedigraph 5100 with Mastertech 51 automatic sampling device as well as other standard laboratory facilities such as analytical and electronic balances, microscopes.
Other - Cooperation in research with other institutions (Cal Tech, USC, UCLA, UCSB, CSUSD) has been and can be arranged on an Ad Hoc basis. Industrial support of some thesis projects has also been arranged.