Main Geochemical Laboratory

Varian Vista Pro Simultaneous Axial Inductively Coupled Atomic Emission Spectrometer (ICP-AES) -  Analyzes major and minor elemental compositions in solutions.

Varian Cary 50 Spectrophotometer - Analyzes small samples of liquid for bulk chemical composition.

 X-ray Diffractometer - The D/Max 2000/PC is a multipurpose measurement system with a single goniometer that provides phase identification, powder pattern analysis, thin film analysis, and ab initio structure analysis.

BET-Accelerated Surface Area and Porosimetry System - Provides a tool to quantify the size of surface area (minerals, powders, etc.) and pores.

Other Instrumentation - Metrohm Titrator, Orion pH meters and ion selective electrodes for benchtop and field sampling. Wet-lab equipment includes  2 drying ovens and 2 centrifuges,1 Millipore water purification unit, 2 ultrasonicators,1 wrist-action shaker and 1 vortex agitator.

Microscopy Facilities

Optical Microscopy Laboratory - This lab contains several research microscopes for transmitted and reflected light, as well as UV microscopy. There is a FLUIDS Inc. gas flow heating and cooling stage to study fluid inclusions in minerals. Lapidary equipment is available for thin-section preparation.

Scanning Electron Microscope Laboratory - The lab contains a JEOL JXA 840 (donated by  ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company). The facility provides secondary electron, backscattered electron, and cathodoluminescence imaging techniques in combination with energy and wavelength dispersive element analysis.

Interferometry Facility

Vertical Scanning White Light Interferometer  - Vertical scanning white light interferometry (VSWLI) provides nanometer-scale vertical resolution for the study of crystal surface topography. In combination with flow-through experiments, this technique adds a whole new dimension to the study of the key factors in mineral-solution or growth kinetic rate laws (e.g., the effect of saturation state, catalysis or inhibition, pH, organic acids).

Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer and Laser Ablation

The This lab houses a single-collector, magnetic sector ICP-MS (Thermo Finnigan^TM ELEMENT2) characterized by high sensitivity (2 GHz/ppm) and the ability to run in high-mass resolution modes to differentiate isobaric interferences.  The lab is dedicated to rapid trace-element analyses (ppt to ppm) and high-precision isotope dilution determinations of concentrations for a variety of trace elements.  The lab also houses a 213 nm NewWave laser ablation system for in situ analysis of trace elements in minerals on the tens of micron scale. (www.ruf.rice.edu/~ctlee/ICPMS.htm)

             Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer and Microscope

The lab houses a ThermoNicolet 3700 Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer coupled to a ThermoNicolet Continuum IR microscope.  This equipment is sensitive to the mid-IR range and can be used to investigate water and
CO₂ contents in minerals as well as organic species in soils, plants, tissues, etc.

Clean Lab

The clean lab is characterized by positive pressure and HEPA-filtered air. The lab houses one HEPA-filtered laminar flow hood and one wash-down hood designed for perchloric acid digestions. Also included are a Mettler-Toledo 5 digit balance, Eppendorf microcentrifuge, ultrasonicators, water purification system, and a static blower. This lab is
restricted-access in order to maintain clean room conditions. (www.ruf.rice.edu/~ctlee/lab.htm)

   Marine Research Equipment

The department maintains various equipment for offshore studies, including high-resolution seismic and side-scan sonar equipment.  

The Malvern Laser Particle Size Analyzer (LPSA) quickly and accurately measures grain size, from clay particles through sand size, using only small sediment samples.  The LPSA is used at Rice for projects studying sediments in the Gulf of Mexico, Antarctica, and Northeast Australia.

Field Geophysics Equipment  - Includes a 60-channel, high resolution seismograph, a ground penetrating radar system, a gravimeter, and a magnetometer.

New Computer Facilities in Progress!

The Earth Science Department has an extensive computing facility established with funds from the National Science Foundation, Sun Microsystems, and the petroleum industry.  The Center for Computational Geophysics has three large SMP computers (a 20 processor/20 Gbyte memory Sun ES6500 and an 8 processor/32Gbyte memory Sun V880, a 24 CPU/ 48 Gbyte memory Sun E6800) for high performance computing, and a small but expanding high performance AMD Opterton cluster. The computing network also has 50 Sun Sparc and Ultrasparc workstations, Windows workstations, and two Sun ES450 servers.  Landmark^TM seismic software packages are used for seismic reflection data processing research; the Landmark suite is used for seismic interpretation. We are part of a Rice consortium operating a 500 node parallel Cray x01Supercomputer.

The department has several computer labs equipped with Sun, Mac, and Windows workstations, color and black-and-white laser, inkjet, and thermal printers; two 54-inch color plotters and a 24-inch black-and-white plotter.  All workstations have access to Landmark^TM  as well as mapping, seismic, and math software.  Seismic stratigraphic and seismic interpretations work-stations also are available.

The Keith-Wiess Geological Laboratories have fiber optics Ethernet connecting the main computing network to a large network of Macintosh and PC computers.  Most graduate students have either a SUN, PC, or Mac on their desks.  We have image-processing and graphics manipulation software and hardware for preparing presentations.