Equipment
The geology department at Bucknell is well-equipped with instrumentation for field and laboratory research and for teaching. Facilities throughout campus are also available for use by Bucknell faculty and students. All facilities are 100% University-supported and charge no fees to Bucknell users.
Major shared instrumentation maintained in the geology department includes the following:
- Sediment recirculating flume (9m x 2.4m x 1m) with laser mapping system
- Aquabiotech annular flume (18-cm channel, 170-cm diameter) with surface impeller to set water velocities at 4 to 31 cm/sec and jacket chiller to maintain constant temperature
- Beckman Coulter LS 13-320 laser diffraction particle sizer
- Environmental scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive spectroscopy and cathodoluminescence capabilities
- Panalytical X-Pert Pro MPD X-ray diffractometer
- Rock and mineral preparation equipment including rock saws, Bico crusher and pulverizer, Franz magnetic separator, thin-section preparation equipment, Lortone vibra-lap and Wilfley mineral separation lab.
- Guralp digital output broadband seismometer for detecting and displaying worldwide seismic activity
- Introductory student and upper-level petrographic microscopes and a variety of research-grade microscopes.
- Leica DM6000 Imaging System with Leica Application Suite software
- Geology Student Computer Lab (PC and Mac) with 42” HP Plotter and large-format Colortrac drum scanner
- Small shop for facilities construction/repair including 10-inch table saw, drill press and miter saw
Field equipment maintained by the department includes the following:
- SonTek RiverSurveyor S5 acoustic Doppler current profiler and FlowTracker acoustic Doppler velocimeter
- Field sampling equipment, including handheld sensors for pH, specific conductivity (SpC) and dissolved oxygen (DO); long-term loggers with sensors for water quality parameters including depth, pH, Spc, DO, turbidity and CO2; ISCO automated samplers and bedload samplers
- Vibracore system with 10-foot tripod for taking 3-inch diameter sediment cores
- Earth auger portable 2-inch gas-powered soil auger
- Trimble real-time kinematic GPS and robotic total stations
- Faro Focus 350 terrestrial laser scanner
- Gigapan/Canon camera system
- SenseFly eBee X fixed-wing drone with SODA (visible), Duet T (visible and thermal) and Sequoia (multispectral) cameras
- DJI Phantom 4 flying camera drone
- Geophysical equipment including two ground penetrating radar systems, a 24-channel seismograph and refraction seismic equipment, an electrical resistivity system, a gravimeter, magnetometer and a Radiation Solutions RS-230 portable gamma ray spectrometer
- 2 departmental field vehicles and access to University vehicle fleet
- Hach 9500 and Marsh-McBirney electromagnetic current velocity meters
- Honda 3000 portable generator
- Wide variety of basic geology field equipment to support our many outdoor field exercises at the introductory and upper levels
Many Bucknell geology faculty also make use of the Environmental Engineering and Science Laboratory (EESL). EESL instruments of particular relevance are the Thermo Fisher iCAP RQ ICP-MS with ESI New Wave Research 193nm UC laser ablation, the Malvern Nano-ZS dynamic light scattering instrument and the Shimadzu total carbon analyzer. Additional instrumentation available in the EESL includes a Dionex ion chromatograph, an Aurora Instruments atomic absorption spectrometer, several other gas and liquid chromatography systems and a collection of field tools. The EESL has a full-time laboratory director who assists with projects and training.
The Bucknell College of Engineering also maintains a Project Development Lab, which includes modern machining and welding facilities and can assist in designing and making equipment.
