2005-06 - Office of the Registrar - Duke University

in these activities are surface electronics for the borehole sensors, cables and rigging for
instrument installation, and shipping materials.
Coastal Simulation Lab. Dr. Brad Murray’s lab and equipment include 5 Silicon
Graphics computers (2 O2workstations, 2 Octane workstations, and 1 Origin 200 server) and
a Linux PC, with with a total of 8 processors. Along with students, postdocs, undergraduate
assistants and visiting scholars, Dr. Murray has used these machines chiefly for developing
and running numerical models of surface processes. At times, all the processors are kept
running continuously for weeks or months, with models of rivers, coastal marshes, rip
currents, shorelines, and nearshore-seabed patterns. His group uses the graphics and
animation capabilities of this computer lab to produce images and movies of the model
behaviors. One of the O2s features video I/O capabilities and video-analysis software, and
they have analyzed laboratory and field video data using recently developed techniques
(time averaging and rectification) to extract information from the observations. Misc: Video
camera and tripods, high quality Hi-8 and VHS player/recorders and TV set display; diving
equipment used for observing nearshore-seabed features.
Petrology Laboratory. The laboratory space of Dr. Boudreau is used largely for general
rock sample preparation by members of the petrology/geochemistry group, and includes the
following equipment: separatory funnels for mineral separations using the heavy liquids;
small sample crushing and sieving equipment; precision diamond wafering blade rock
cutting equipment; thin section polishing laps for polished sections for petrographic and
electron microprobe study; small Deltech experimental 1 atmosphere high temperature
furnace, used for making electron microprobe standards and for high temperature
experiments; rock tumbling equipment for aggrading mineral separates; acid dissolutions
that are not standard as are used for ICP-MS analysis. An example includes perchloric acid
dissolutions, for which the OSHA-required wash down hood in the lab is the only one in the
division.
Electron Microprobe Laboratory. The electron microprobe lab, directed by Dr. Alan
Boudreau, is used by the petrology and geochemistry groups at Duke and UNC. As such, it
is an indispensable basic tool in mineral analyses. The machine consists of a Cameca
CAMEBAX (French manufacture) electron microprobe with 4 wavelength-dispersive
spectrometers, an energy dispersive spectrometer and digital electron microbeam imaging
system. It is automated with control through an Apple Macintosh operating system. The lab
is part of a Duke-UNC shared laboratory facilities agreement.
Geochem Laboratory. Dr. Paul Baker's lab has all facilities necessary for major and
minor wet chemical analyses. This includes an atomic absorption spectrophotometer, an ion
chromatograph, a UV-Vis spectrophotometer, and a Phillips X-Ray diffractometer. Field
equipment includes the following: the R/V Neecho, outfitted at Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution and transported by ship to Arica, Chile, then driven over the Andes and launched
in Lake Titicaca. The Neecho is a capable 39 foot, twin-diesel boat with a hydro winch and
coring winch, two generators, and an air compressor for seismic reflection work. Dr. Baker
has an oceanographic-scale piston core (and has taken a 17 m long Kullenberg piston core
off the boat), a large and a small box corer and a Seabird Seacat CTD. For smaller lakes there
is a zodiac and other small boats and small motors. Dr. Baker has Russian peat corers and
a Livingstone piston corer, a gamma/SP/resistivity well logger and 500 m winch.
Micropaleontology Laboratory. Dr. Bruce Corliss has a micropaleontology laboratory
which is set up to process marine sediments for the analysis of microfossils. A Carlo-Erba
C-N-S Analyzer is included in the equipment, and the lab has a copy of the Catalogue of
Foraminifera for taxonomic work. Corliss also maintains an 8x10’ environmental room,
which is temperature controlled and used for culturing of deep-sea organisms.
High Temperature Chemistry/Petrology Laboratories. Instruments and laboratory
facilities overseen by Dr. Emily Klein within the high-temperature chemistry/petrology
group include the following instruments and laboratory equipment for sample preparation.
296 Resources for Study