UHM Dept. of Earth Sciences banner, sunset over Diamond Head, (c) Ken H Rubin

Research Facilities

The Department of Earth Sciences is loosely divided into three working research divisions, with numerous laboratories and research facilities at the disposal of department personnel. However, many faculty and students also work across these disciplinary boundaries.

Analytical and Experimental Laboratories

Facility Location Description Contact
Electron Microprobe Laboratory POST 621 Micron-scale quantitative major and minor element analysis of minerals, glasses, and other solid materials. Peng Jiang
Isotope Biogeochemistry Laboratory POST 724, 725, 726 Stable isotope analyses of geologic and oceanographic samples including C, N, and H isotope analyses of individual compounds. Brian Popp
Natalie Wallsgrove
Isotope Laboratory POST 637, 638, 604 Radiogenic/Radioactive/Heavy-stable isotope analysis for volcanology, petrology, geochronology, paleooceanography, and other applications.
Aaron Pietruszka
Maksim Kuznetsov
Kenna Rubin
MC-ICP-MS Laboratory POST 630 Isotope geochemistry and environmental chemistry by multi-collector plasma ionization mass spectrometry. Ken Rubin
Aaron Pietruszka
Experimental Petrology Laboratory POST 730 Volcanology and petrology using experiments. Julia Hammer
Physical Volcanology POST 622, 623 Rock crushing and powdering. Bruce Houghton
Seismic Processing and Analysis Laboratory POST 834 Computer hardware and software for processing and analysis of seismic reflection/refraction data. Robert Dunn
Greg Moore
Mineral Geochemistry Laboratory POST 632 Inorganic and biological mineral separation and processing for geochronology and isotope geochemistry. Ken Rubin

Sea-Going Facilities

The following research vessels and their supporting shipboard technical group, are available to researchers for gathering geophysical, geochemical and other open ocean and coastal data and samples:

R/V Kilo Moana (AGOR26 swath ship)

Luukai, a DOER-H6000 ROV (remotely-operated underwater vehicle) - NEW in 2013

Sea-going instrumentation includes equipment for digital seismic reflection, gravity, magnetics, coring, dredging, and water column studies, the HAWAII MR1 side-scan sonar system, and fiber optic-based deep-towed FOCUS camera system. In addition, software is available for multi-channel seismic processing and geophysical data analysis.

Students are encouraged to take advantage of opportunities for cooperative, interdisciplinary research. Cooperative research is also carried out with other units of the University and federal laboratories in Hawaii. Some of these are: