Geosciences

The Geochemistry Lab has equipment for preparing and analyzing water, soil, and rock samples for their elemental composition. We have an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) and a UV/VIS spectrophotometer. The lab also has:

• Several fume hoods
• A laminar flow hood
• An ultrapure water system
• An analytical balance
• pH meters
• Muffle furnace
• Drying oven
• Centrifuges
• Hot plates

Geotechnical engineering represents the intersection of engineering and geology. Geotechnical engineers study the engineering properties of soil and rock as they relate to the safety and stability of human infrastructure.

The EWU Geotechnical Engineering Lab has equipment to perform a wide variety of ASTM standard tests. Tests include specific gravity, Atterberg limits (plastic and liquid limits of soil), sieve and hydrometer analysis of particle size distributions, optimal water content for compaction (both standard and modified Proctor tests), unconfined compressive strength, California bearing ratio (CBR) for soil and rock underlying roads and runways, long-term consolidation, liquefaction, and constant head and falling head permeability.

Equipment includes:

• Multiple load frames
• Various load cells and strainmeters
• Consolidometer and dead-load weights
• Standard and modified Proctor test molds and compaction hammers
• CBR molds and equipment for standard and saturated CBR testing
• Split molds and tampers
• Large sieve shaker and sieves
• Tabletop sieve shaker and sieves
• Light-, medium-, and heavy-duty balances
• Casagrande machines for liquid limit testing
• Slurry mixers
• Sample splitters
• Drying ovens
• Shake table for seismic analysis of soil behavior
• Falling head permeameter
• Constant head permeameter
• Hydrometers and hydrometer cylinders
• Sand cone density apparatus
• Bucket and Edelman augers
• Hammer corer
• Assorted sampling and lab tools

The GIS Laboratory is located in the Science Building giving student access to cutting edge spatial technology. We have brand new, state of the art GIS facilities including a GIS classroom and a separate GIS Research Lab where students learn to solve complex spatial problems using advance spatial analysis and modeling skills.

The EWU Drone Research Center hosts a number of DJI drones for aerial imaging, thermal imaging and multispectral mapping, and are used in the Remote Sensing Certification.

The Invertebrate Paleontology Lab is equipped to:

• Make thin sections and acetate peels
• Produce photomicrographs of fossil specimens
• Perform quantitative measurements of various morphological features

Diamond saws, diamond grinding wheels, and polishing machines can be used to produce polished specimens of fossils for thin sections and peels. Several microscopes and cameras are available to study and photograph both thin sections and peels. A digitizer board and measuring instrument simplify the quantitative aspects of working with fossils.

The primary group of fossil studies in the paleontology lab at Eastern are colonial marine organisms called bryozoans. Most of the morphological structures present in these organisms require microscopic studies to identify the various species of bryozoans. We are currently studying Permian bryozoans from Washington state, New Zealand, Russia, Pakistan, Nevada, and China.

The laboratory also contains a large library of books and articles on fossil bryozoans to aid our research.

The Sedimentology Lab is used for both teaching and research. The lab contains equipment to perform basic sieve analyses and grain size analyses of silts and clays, heavy mineral separation and basic soil engineering tests. We have also constructed a small Plexiglass flume to demonstrate sediment transport mechanics in alluvial channels, as well as a turbidity tank to simulate turbidity flows and associated deposition.

There is a large teaching collection of sedimentary rocks, both detrital and carbonate, for use in undergraduate classes. There is also a large collection of a wide variety of sedimentary structures. In addition, there are several sets of core from sedimentary sequences in Washington and from the Colorado Plateau.

A small office and prep room are attached to the main lab space and are used by students and faculty for special projects.

The Mineralogy and Petrology Lab is used primarily for undergraduate study and research. The laboratory has a collection of museum quality specimens available for viewing and numerous teaching specimens including Ward’s 100 North American Rocks and Minerals. The Cheney-Cowles Museum donated a beautiful collection of museum quality mineral specimens that are available for teaching. Another collection was acquired for display and/or teaching from Paul and Alice Weis, both retirees from the local office of the United States Geological Survey. A hallway display of some of their specimens is updated on a regular basis for viewing by the general public.  Most recently, the department acquired a collection from Elizabeth Lynch Williams Ralls consisting of micromounts and small samples of nicely crystallized minerals that are instrumental in teaching crystallography.

The laboratory also has a collection of ball-and-stick models (14 Bravais Lattices, six Crystal Systems, and several minerals including halite, graphite, and diamond) for teaching purposes. Mineral identification by students is facilitated with hardness kits, streak plates, glass plates, and magnets.

The laboratory is equipped with ten CX31-P Olympus student petrographic microscopes. The department also has a mobile petrographic teaching workstation consisting of a high-resolution Javelin video camera (CV-730) that mounts onto a microscope for thin section study or onto a Computar macroscopic zoom lens for viewing mineral/rock specimens on a 19″ SONY Trinitron color video monitor. This petrographic workstation aids in teaching optical mineralogy and petrology.

Students and faculty utilize the state-of-the-art Thin Section Lab for rock and mineral sample preparation including cutting, grinding and polishing of rock and mineral specimens. The facility maintains five rock saws, equipped to handle large and small samples, five variable speed grinder-polishers, an automatic vibratory polisher, two slab polishers and two thin section machines, including a Microtec semiautomatic machine capable of producing both standard and large-format thin sections.

The Weissenborn Map Library, named in memory of Al Weissenborn, a USGS geologist  houses an extensive collection (20,000-plus different titles) of topographic, geologic and other thematic maps encompassing the Pacific Northwest and the world beyond that are available to students and faculty for use in teaching and research.