Department of Geology & Geophysics

FACILITIES AND SERVICES


ADVANCED INSTRUMENTATION LABORATORY

The Advanced Instrumentation Laboratory is located on the UAF campus in the Reichardt Building.  It specializes in surface and elemental analysis as well as electron microscopy. In addition to the instrumentation it also houses support sample preparation facilities.

GEOCHRONOLOGY LABORATORY

The Geochronology Laborary is also located in the Reichard Building, third floor, on the UAF campus.  It determines the ages of rock and minerals.

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The Geochronology Laboratory at UAF conducts research in determining the ages of rocks and minerals using the 40Ar/39Ar step-heating dating method. Major areas of research emphasis include determining the tectonic history of Alaska and adjacent Russia, determining the relationship between plutonism and ore mineralization and determining the eruptive history of Alaska's volcanoes.

The laboratory has two mass spectrometer systems, a Nuclide system installed in 1970 with an on-line extraction furnace and a VG3600 laser system installed in 1994. We completed over 2000 mass spectrometry analyses on 143 samples in 1993 and 2500 mass spectrometry analyses on 158 samples in 1994 on the Nuclide mass spectrometer system. In 1994 we completed over 1200 mass spectrometry analyses on the newly installed laser system. Many of these analyses were done on research grants and internally supported projects discussed below while others were on externally supported contracts and in support of student theses.

Corporations which supplied support for the geochronology laboratory in exchange for age analyses in 1993 and 1994 include: Placer Dome Inc., ASA Inc., Ryan Lode Mines Inc., Fairbanks Gold Mining Inc., Arco, and Chevron Minerals Division. Universities which provided contract support or collaboration include Michigan State University, Beloit College, Stanford University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, and Lulea University in Sweden. Supporting government agencies include the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Bureau of Mines.

Student thesis work involved investigations of the plutons of the northeastern Brooks Range, the mineralization in the Fairbanks district, the history of the Southwest Nevada Volcanic Field, the igneous and metamorphic rocks in Russia, mineralization in southern Africa and Australia, and the thermal history of the McKinley pluton.

For more information contact Paul Layer at 907-474-7608.
e-mail:geology@uaf.edu

COMPUTER LABS

The Geology & Geophysics Computer Lab is located in Room 316 of the Reichardt Building at 900 Yukon Drive, mid-way between the West Ridge Research Complex and lower campus.  The Lab consists of 14 Windows 2000 workstations, and 1 MacIntosh workstation

POSTER PRINTING

The Department of Geology & Geophysics is available to print your posters for class projects and presentations. Please review the instructions for this and follow them.  Our staff has limited time for poster printing and time gets very limited before presentation deadlines or the semester ends. Those who have not followed all the steps as written risk not getting their poster printed in time.