Physical geography laboratories

Our physical geography laboratories support undergraduate teaching such as classes, fieldwork and dissertation projects, as well as research undertaken by postgraduate students, research and academic staff.

geos-facilities-underpinning- geography microscope student 4

Contact and location

Contact

Dr Anthony NewtonAnthony.Newton@ed.ac.uk+44 (0) 131 650 2546Lecturer in Geography

View Dr Newton's full research profile

Location

Address: Institute of Geography, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Drummond St, Edinburgh EH8 9XP

Please note that parking on campus is strictly by permit only, and parking spaces are subject to availability. Commercial and external users should contact our staff about parking arrangements.

These facilities are multifunctional, meaning they each have many different uses.  

Located within the Institute of Geography building, our facilities include:

  • Palaeoecology Laboratory
  • Sediment Laboratory
  • Microscope Room
  • Tephra Store
  • Cold Room
  • Mineral Separation/Crushing/Sieving Room

You can find more details on the facilities and equipment available under each of the drop-down menus below.

The Palaeoecology Laboratory and Sediment Laboratory are open to all students as well as research and academic staff.

A range of activities are supported through these laboratories including:

  • general bench top needs
  • water quality
  • loss on ignition
  • soil properties and particle size
  • tephra, pollen and diatom preparation
  • various microscope slide preparations

Both laboratories contain HF-rated fume cupboards with washdown facilities.

Surgical gloved hands pouring rock sediment into a large sieve

Temperature controlled filtered external air supplies have recently been fitted, which help to maintain a clean and safe working environment.

As well as the usual range of glassware and other consumables, the laboratories also contain:  

Various hotplatesDigital pipettersWater baths
Heating blocksUltrasonic bathsMagnetic stirrers
DesiccatorspH metersConductivity meters
Range of sievesSieve shakerTephra microprobe slide preparation
Heraeus drying ovenMuffle furnaceCamlab spectrophotometer
Coulter LS230 Particle Size AnalyserBartington Magnetic Susceptibility Meter3 and 4 digit Mettler Toledo balances
Eppendorf CentrifugeSigma CentrifugeCore splitter

The microscope room is open to all students as well as research and academic staff.

There are various microscopes suitable for diatom, pollen, tephra, geological thin section and plant macrofossil identification.

The equipment includes:

  • x1 Olympus BX50 with phase contrast
  • x3 Olympus BX40 research microscopes (1 with reflected light source, including petrological stage and polariser)
  • x1 Leica S6E stereomicroscope (other Leica S6E stereomicroscopes, one with a digital camera, are shared with the Beetle Lab).
  • x4 Olympus C011 teaching microscopes
  • x1 Vickers petrological microscope
  • x1 Canon EOS 1000D Digital camera (can be connected to any BX40/50 microscope)
A woman looking into a microscope lens

There is also an Optical Microscope Laboratory at the King's Buildings campus, which is around two miles (3km) north of Edinburgh city centre.

We have a large cold room kept at a constant 4°C.

The new large cold room is accessed from the Sediment Laboratory and provides shelf and floor space for material which needs to be kept at a constant 4°C.

Although free space is limited, the cold room is available to all users within the School and allows cores over 2 metres to be stored.

Material stored here is also available for student dissertation projects.


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