Department of Geology and Geography

Facilities

The Department of Geology and Geography is housed in the Herty Building and occupies all of the main floor and part of the basement and second floor. The main facility consists of 8,000 square feet of educational space in a building built in 1957 and has recently undergone renovation.

West wing of the Herty Building

Departmental facilities include:

one newly renovated "Smart classroom" (with a Macintosh G3 computer, a Sharp XGE 3000U LCD projector, three (two 32" and one 26") televisions and a VCR, ELMO TRV 3500 digital slide projector, and ELMO EV400AF document camera)
two lecture rooms
two freshman laboratories
four research training laboratories
a rock preparation laboratory with new petrographic equipment for producing thin sections and polished sections for standard microscopy or probe work
campus well field with instrumentation
a photolab and darkroom
Earth Science Computer Applications Laboratory
hard rock and soft rock classrooms and laboratories
Paleontology collection and preparation facility
various research areas with specialized research equipment
Applied Coastal Research Laboratory

Museum Preparation facility

Departmental equipment available:

Office and General Purpose Equipment
Digital Cameras
Canon G2 Digital Camera [Warren]
Canon Rebel SLR [Vance]
SONY Cyber-Shot Digital Camera [Geisler]
SONY Cyber-Shot DSC F-717 Digital Camera [Rich]
SONY Handycam HDR-SR11 high definition movie camera [van der Maas]

FAX Machines (Department Office and Faculty Work Room)

Copiers and Color Printer (Main copier in Faculty Work Room)

Computer Peripherals

Plotters (ESCAL and IT GIS Lab)
            HP 3500 CP color inkjet plotter (54 inch width) [Tu]
            HP 455 CA color inkjet plotter (36 inch width) [Chapman]

Large Format Scanners (ESCAL)
            Umax 11 x 17 inch scanner with batch slide scanning capability
            Ideal FSC 8010 – drum scanner that will scan up to 36 inches wide

Polaroid SprintScan 35 Plus Slide Scanner (ESCAL)

Polaroid HR 6000 Digital Palette Film Writer (ESCAL)

Field Equipment

Communications
            2 Motorola CT250 two-way radios (with chargers) [Rhodes]

Current Meter
            Swoffer Model 2100 Flow Meter (w/rod, cables, spare propellers) [Welford]

Dissolved Oxygen Meter
            Freshwater / Saltwater DO meter [Reichard]

Global Positioning System (GPS)
            GPS Receivers
                        2 Trimble GeoExplorer II receivers (with chargers and cables) [van der Maas]
                        5 Trimble GeoExplorer GeoXT receivers (with peripherals) [van der Maas]
                        2 Topcon Magellan receivers (with peripherals) [Welford]
                        6 Garmin E-Trex Vista receivers [Trupe]
            External antennae
                        1 External antenna for Trimble GeoExplorer II [van der Maas]
                        1 External antenna for Trimble GeoExplorer GeoXT [van der Maas]
            Differential GPS
                        2 Trimble Beacon-On-A-Belt (BoB) [van der Maas]

Real-Time Kinematic Global Positioning System (RTK-GPS) [van der Maas]
Trimble R8 GNSS base and rover (each containing integrated antenna, receiver and data-link radio), a TSC2 survey controller, software, and accessories. This survey-grade equipment is optimal for detailed topographic measurements, and is capable of sub-centimeter accuracy when taking static measurements, and errors on the order of 1 cm horizontally and 2 cm vertically when in motion.
            Miscellaneous
                        Pole mount for external antenna [van der Maas]

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) System
            MALÅ X3M GeoExplorer [Vance]
            Antenna: 100 MHz, 250 MHz, 500 MHz, 800 MHz

Magnetic Susceptibility Meter
ZH Instruments SM-30 Magnetic Susceptibility Meter [Rhodes]

Geiger Counter
            RDX1 Nuclear Radiation Monitor [Vance]

Samplers (Water)
            2 ISCO 3700 Auto Samplers [Welford]
            Van Dorn bottle [Reichard]

Samplers (Biological)
            Dip net
            Kick net

Compasses
            27 Brunton Pocket Transits [Trupe]

Surveying Instruments
            Wild T1010 electronic theodolite [Rhodes]
            Wild DI1001 electronic distance meter (EDM) [Rhodes]
            Topcon AT-G6 Auto Level (w/ one metric and two standard surveying poles) [Welford]

Tape Measures
            Tapes (various lengths) [Trupe]

Tape Recording
            Marantz PMD 222 tape recorder [Welford]
            Sennheiser ME66 short shotgun omni-directional microphone [Welford]
            Olympus VN-3600 voice recorder [Welford]

Waders
            Insulated chest wadrs (size 12) [Welford]

Miscellaneous
Shovels, picks, and various excavating implements [Geisler]
Sears, 20-gallon, 3 HP air compressor [Geisler]
Briggs & Stratton 3.5 HP Water Pump with hoses [Geisler]
Craftsman large Shop-Vac [Geisler]

Laboratory equipment
Rock Prep Equipment [Herty 1119, Vance]
Large rock saw
Cut-off rock saw
Trim saw
Buehler resectioning/grinding machine
Buehler thin section polisher
Rock tumblers (2)
Large vibratory polisher
Lap wheels (3)
Hydraulic sample splitter
Vibratory sieve shaker and sieve set

Ion Chromatography [Herty 0104, Reichard]
The instrument is configured to analyze freshwater samples for general cations (Li+, Na+, NH4+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+) and anions (Cl-, NO3-, PO43-, SO42-). Analytical limits are on the order of 1.0 mg/liter. The ion chromatograph is supported by a wet chemistry lab that includes top loading and analytical balances, automatic burettes, and an array of ion-selective electrodes. The lab also has a water distillation unit and a de-ionized filtration system for making ultra-pure water.

X-Ray Diffraction [Herty 0105 and 2116, Asher and Vance]
Rigaku MiniFlex X-Ray Diffraction Unit with Jade software (Geochemistry Lab)
Spex Certiprep Mixer/Mill 8000M (Geochemistry Lab)
            Alumina Ceramic vial set
            Tungsten Carbide vial set
XRD Sample Preparation peripherals and expendables (Geochemistry Lab)

Microscopy [Herty 1111 and 1111A, Vance and Asher]
Olympus Petrographic Research Scope with digital and standard camera attachments
Camera and monitor with trinocular head for Olympus petrographic scopes
Portable short/long UV light
Student Petrographic Scopes (Olympus, Leitz, Nikon, Leica)

Portable Spectrometer [Rhodes]
Red Tide Fiber Optic Spectrometer (USB-650-VIS/NIR)
Wavelength Range: 380 nm – 950 nm (650 wavelengths over this range)
Resolution: 1 nm
Fiber optic cable for emission spectra

Sea turtle exhibit

Other facilities include:

Georgia Southern Museum and its Coastal Plain exhibits, including the 29 foot Georgia Southern Mosasaur, are nearby in the Rosenwald Building
the Applied Coastal Research Laboratory at Skidaway Institute of Oceanography
The St. Catherines Sea Turtle Conservation Program at St. Catherines Island

Natural facilities include:

proximity to Coastal Plain sedimentary deposits, including the major world famous deposits of Kaolin Clay, Fullers Earth, and Limestone
the Piedmont and Blue Ridge Provinces with their metamorphic and igneous rocks of Precambrian and Paleozoic age and world famous deposits of Granite and Marble
the dynamic coast of Georgia and its string of barrier islands (The Golden Isles)

Georgia Southern is within easy driving distance of the coast (50 miles to Savannah), the Kaolin District (80 miles to Sandersville), the Granite mines (150 miles to Elberton), and the Atlanta metropolis (180 miles).