The SIMS laboratory is an open user facility intended to support the needs of the global geochemical community. It offers six modes of operation: Isotopic Analyses, Trace Element Analyses, Geochronology, Imaging, Depth Profiling, Particle Search.

Equipment: fully equipped, large geometry SIMS instrument and associated instruments

Contact person: Dr. Michael Wiedenbeck

The PISA facility combines the state-of-the-art imaging and spectral technologies for all kinds of research applications. It consists of a range of electron microscopes with various detectors including EBSD and EDS.

For the purpose of the quantification of processes and property distributions related to deformation and mass fluxes, we operate an integrated geodynamic modelling laboratory that unites a variety of tools and methodologies.

Equipment: Rheometry, Viscosimeter, Ring-shear tester, Axial tester, SEM imaging, Sonic/Ultrasonic probing, Sandbox standards (compression, extension, strike-slip), Vice setup (pure shear), Gravitational/isostatic flow, Intrusion, Impact, Custom mades, Digital image correlation, Force/pressure sensors, MEMS accelerometers, Piezotransducers

Contact person: Dr. Matthias Rosenau

In our high-pressure labs we experimentally simulate the conditions ranging from the Earth’s crust to the deep mantle.

Equipment: Hydrothermal laboratory, internally heated pressure vessel (IHPV), Piston Cylinder Press, Multi-Anvil Press, Piston Cylinder/Multi Anvil Press

Contact person: Dr. Sergio Speziale

For rock deformation experiments we handle different apparatuses, allowing to perform brittle (low temperature) tests on large rock samples (MTS servo-hydraulic press) and high temperature (ductile) experiments on small samples (Paterson-type gas deformation apparatus at high confining pressure, uniaxial creep rig at atmospheric pressure).

To further the use of the Earth's subsurface for energy applications (e.g. geothermal and storage), several laboratories are operated by Section 4.8 (Geoenergy) that permit to simulate in situ reservoir conditions and to perform measurements and experiments on relevant rocks and fluids and their physical and chemical interactions.

Equipment: Dedicated laboratories for rock mechanics and rock physics, fluid chemistry and fluid physics, fluid monitoring, fibre optics and hydrogen research

Contact Person: Dr. Harald Milsch

In the Electron Microprobe Laboratory the used technique allows for nondestructive analyses of smallest parts of materials (in micrometer range) with high precision. Materials that can be analysed are embedded and polished mineral grains (also gemstones), glass particles as well as rocks. Except for H, He, and Li all elements of the periodic table until including U can be detected and quantified.

Equipment: JEOL Hyperprobe JXA-8500F with a thermal field-emission cathode; JEOL Superprobe JXA 8230 with tungsten or LaB6 cathodes

Contact person: Dr. Franziska Wilke

Equipment: Thermal ionization mass-spectrometers / TIMS, Multi-collector mass-spectrometer with inductivly coupled plasma source / MC-ICP MS

Contact person: Prof. Rolf Romer

In the Noble Gas Laboratory, the isotopic signature of noble gases can be determined that provides valuable information on the origin and history of a rock or fluid sample.

Equipment: 2 noble gas spectrometers (MM 5400 and Helix SFT), water degassing line, gas preparation line

Contact person: Dr. Samuel Niedermann

Equipment: X-ray diffractometry (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), inductive coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), inductive coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), ion chromatography (IC), low-temperature calorimetry, gas-mass spectrometry (MS), gas chromatography (GC).

Contact persons: Dr. Anja Schleicher, Dr. Bettina Strauch, Dr. Martin Zimmer, Dr. Jessica Stammeier

In the Helmholtz-Laboratory for the Geochemistry of the Earth Surface HELGES, sample preparation and measurements of cosmogenic nuclides and stable isotopes of metals and metalloids in geological and environmental sample materials, such as sediments, rocks, river water, soils, vegetation are performed.

Equipment: Two clean labs class 1000+ with class 10 laminar flow workstations for sample preparation of low concentration samples. Dry and wet chemistry labs for preparation of solid and liquid samples. Analytical instruments for concentration and isotope ratio measurements on liquid and solid samples. A Thermo Neptune Multicollector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS) for isotope measurements (Li, Mg, Si, Fe, Sr). Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (Varian 720 ES ICP-OES) for concentration measurements. Both ICP instruments can be coupled to an in-house built femtosecond laser ablation system (fsLA-MC-ICP-MS or fsLA-ICP-OES) for in-situ concentration and isotope ratio measurements at the micrometer scale.

The laboratory for microscopy focuses on the specific requirements of microfacies analysis of lake sediments, but also offers a wide range of possibilities for other applications.

The Bubble & Volcano Lab is an experimental laboratory to study bubble processes in hydrothermal and volcanic terrain.

Equipment: Shaking table, camera system, pressure sensors, modular data aquisition system, vizualisation via LabView

Contact persons: Dr. Heiko Woith, PD Dr. Thomas Walter, Dr. Eleonora Rivalta

This laboratory deals with magnetostratigraphic dating of paleoclimate archives and the reconstruction of geomagnetic field variation in the geological past, as well as with analyses of magnetic minerals.

The Dendrochronology Laboratory serves for the reconstruction of temporal and spatial variability of the climate of the past utilizing multi-parameter tree ring analysis.

In the laboratory for tephrochronology, visible and invisible (crypto-) tephras are extracted from sediment records and prepared for geochemical fingerprinting of the volcanic source as a chronological tool for palaeoclimate archives.

The development of geophysical exploration systems with high resolution for underground applications and mobile operation on the surface implicate many interesting problems to be solved with electronics. That is, design and programming of radio-controlled data acquisition systems as well as control systems for seismic impulse and vibrator sources. Another challenging task is the planning, installation and initial operation of electrode arrays in boreholes.

The Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics Section has a well equipped spectral laboratory. The Spectroscopy Laboratory supports developments in optical remote sensing.

Equipment: Laboratory UV/Vis/NIR/TIR spectrometers, field spectroradiometers in the Vis/NIR and TIR range, hyperspectral cameras Vis/NIR/TIR, mobile x-ray fluorescence analyses

Contact: Dr. Carsten Neumann, Sylvia Magnussen, Prof. Dr. Sabine Chabrillat

In the GeoBioLab basic research on (micro)biological, (bio)geochemical and geological processes and their dynamics in deep sedimentary deposits is performed.

Equipment: classical microbiology investigations (e.g. isolation and characterization of bacteria and archaea, taxonomy and physiology), culture-independent characterization of microbial communities (e.g. DNA/RNA based studies, quantitative PCR, Stable Isotope Probing, Next Generation Sequencing, and bioinformatics).

Contact person: Prof. Dirk Wagner