Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources
General Research Laboratory Information: The Earth Sciences (ES) at University of Memphis maintains research labs in Johnson (JN), Clement (CL), and Smith (SM) Halls.
Johnson Hall
Earth Sample Storage (JN-03): The Earth Sample Storage (ESS) space is located on the ground floor of Johnson Hall, JN-03, and includes the following holdings: an Ejkelkamp soil pentetrometer, Niskin sampling bottle model 1010-1.2 to 40 L, handheld soil auger and coring equipment, gas-powered soil auger, lake coring device, rock drill, and camping gear for field trips. A separate room for core storage is available.
Soil Sample Preparation and Testing Laboratory Equipment (JN-114): The Soil Sample Preparation and Testing Laboratory (SSL) is on the first floor of Johnson Hall, JN-114, and holds a variety of soil sample preparation and drying equipment. The SSL holds two Blue-M sample drying convection ovens and a Fischer Scientific muffle furnace. The SSL holds an Eberbach reciprocal shaker, Gilson SP-3 riffle splitter, Artek Sonic 300 sonicator, Fischer Scientific FS5 ultrasonic system, and Talcott Laboratories Paraboth sonicator. The SSL also has Mettler Toledo PC400 and AE163 scales (0.01 g precision). Hot plates and dessication and vacuum chambers are also available. The SSL also holds a Fritsch Analysette 3 Spartan sieve shaker and four METER GROUP Pario particle size analyzers (uses integral suspension settling method) that can model continuous particle size distribution curves in conjunction with sand sieve data. Field equipment for soil and sediment extraction also available.
Earth Sciences Visualization Laboratory Equipment (JN-216A): The Earth Sciences Visualization Laboratory (ESVL) is on the second floor of Johnson Hall, JN-216A, and holds a range of microscopes and storage of shallow Earth geophysical equipment. The ESVL has a Leica DM750P polarizing light microscope with a DMC 2900 digital camera attachment, and a Leica M125 C binocular microscope with a K|3 digital camera attachment. Both microscopes are supported by a Dell Optiplex 7090 workstation with Core I7 processor and Leica imaging software. The ESVL also holds an EinScan Pro 2x Shining 3D handheld LED scanner with 3D sample stage. In addition to microscopy equipment, JN-216A also holds an array of near-surface geophysical equipment including: Bartington Instuments G601-2 Dual Fluxgate gradiometer; Geometrics 858 cesium magnetometer; a Geometrics Geode 24-channel recorders with P- and S-wave geophone arrays; Geonics EM30 and EM31 electrical conductivity meters.
Clement Hall
Archaeology Laboratory (CL-125): Bettersizer S3 Plus laser particle size analyzer with digital imaging analysis.
Smith Hall
Earth Sample Preparation Laboratory Equipment (SM-002): The Earth Sample Preparation Laboratory (ESPL) is in the basement of Smith Hall, SM002, and holds water- and oil-cooled rock trim saws. SM-002 is 560 ft2 of lab space with 62 ft2 of bench space along the perimeter of the lab. Additional bench space (>50 ft2) is available in the center of the room. The ESPL also holds a Franz magnetic separator and Gilson SS-15 sieve shaker.
Earth Sciences and CAESER Lab (SM-125): The shared Earth Sciences and CAESER lab is located on the 1st floor of Smith Hall (SM-125) and is 213 ft2 of lab space divided into two rooms: a rear room (112 ft2) with 46 ft2 of bench space and cabinetry storage space. The front room (101 ft2) has a desk and two storage cabinets. storage room mainly for hydrology; tensiometers and lysimeters for water and soil sampling; Neutron probe (requires x-ray training).
Earth Sciences wet chemistry lab (SM-127): SM-127 is 218 ft2 of lab space with 46 ft2 of bench top space. The room also has 30 ft2 of table space. SM-127 has the following instrumental holdings: Dionex ICS-3000 ion chromatograph system with autosampler (AS) set up for anions, Hach UV-Vis spectrophotometer for phosphate, nitrate and chloride measurements, portable pH, EC/Conductance and DO meters, a Thermo Orion AQ3010 turbidity meter, and an Ohaus TS400D balance with dual 400g/40g capacity and 0.01g/0.001g readability.
Earth Sciences lab (SM-129): SM-129 is 218 ft2 of lab space with 26 ft2 of benchtop space along the perimeter of the lab. The lab also includes a 9 ft2 Hamilton fume hood. An additional 43 ft2 of table space is available in the room. SM-129 has the following instrumental holdings: Thermo Barnstead E-Pure Water Purification system; Thermo Scientific IEC Centra GP8 centrifuge (capable of handling containers up to 250 mL; Sartorius balance; Lab-Line Mistral Multi-Mixer; and Blue M convection drying oven.
Earth Sciences Lab (SM-207): The Earth Sciences AA Lab (ESAAL) is 336 ft2 of lab space located on the 2nd floor of Smith Hall, SM-207, and holds an atomic absorption spectrometer instrument. Current holdings in the ESAAL include: Varian SpectrAA 220 Z/FS flame atomic absorption spectrometer with GTA 110Z graphite furnace for trace element analysis of solutions, Caron 2050w heated/refrigerated temperature bath, circulating chiller, Thermo Orion Star A324 pH/ISE portable multimeter, Mettler Toledo NewClassic ML balance with 0.1 mg readability.
Earth Sciences Spectrometer Lab (SM-306): The Earth Sciences Spectrometer Lab (ESSL) is on the 3rd floor of Smith Hall, SM-306, and holds a variety of spectroscopy equipment. SM306 is a 190 ft2 lab space with 52 ft2 of benchtop space. Current spectroscopy holdings include an Agilent 4300 FTIR reflectance spectrometer, Spectral Evolution PSR 3500 spectroradiometer, and Bruker TRACER 5i, portable-X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. The ESSL also holds a variety of clay mineral standards for XRD analysis, VWR hot and magnetic stir plates, sieves, graduated cylinders and a VWR sympHony benchtop pH meter.
Earth Sciences Clean Chemistry Lab (SM-321): The Earth Sciences Clean Chemistry Lab (ESCCL) is 180 ft2 of lab space on the 3rd floor of Smith Hall, SM-321, and holds clean sample preparation equipment. Current holdings include a Precision Model 19 vacuum oven for precise temperature control upon heating, Napco Model 210A water bath, IEC Micromax microcentrifuge, Electromantle heating mantle, fume hood, and refrigeration space.
Other Resources
Computer and Geospatial Support: Wireless internet is available to faculty and students throughout the University of Memphis main campus, which includes Johnson and Smith Hall. TAF computer facilities in Johnson Hall. Geo X7 Trimble unit (sub-meter accuracy), handheld Trimble units. The Earth Sciences also maintains a fleet of drones for geospatial mapping and remote sensing. The fleet includes: DJI Phanto 4 Pro V2 for simple mapping deployment, 20-megapixel imagery ideal for precision mapping, 2D and 3D imaging, volumetric calculations, fault identification and identifying archaeological features; DJI Phantom 4 Multispectral drone for biogeographical applications (water management and agricultural inspections, plant health analysis).
Spatial Analysis and Geographic Education (SAGE) Laboratory in the Department of Earth Sciences: contains statistical, GIS, and Remote Sensing software from ESRI and ERDAS. In addition to the hardware and software listed below, the lab contains a color inkjet printer, scanner, and a digitizing table. The SAGE Laboratory conducts research in GIS and spatial analysis, medical geography, spatial epidemiology, mapping health disparities/human rights and remote sensing/image analysis. SAGE fosters training of professionals, teachers, and does various outreach activities with local agencies and high schools. Dr. Esra Ozdenerol directs the Spatial Analysis and Geographic Education Laboratory.
The Earth Sciences utilizes facilities across The University of Memphis campus that include:
The Integrated Microscopy Center (IMC), Chemistry facilities in Smith Hall, Physics facilities in Manning Hall, Computational facilities in the FedEx Institute, Center for Applied Earth Science and Engineering Research (CAESER), and shared holdings with the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI).
The Integrated Microscopy Center (IMC) at University of Memphis is a fee-for-service user facility that maintains Scanning Electron Microscopy, Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy, and X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometery facilities. The IMC has an FEI Nova Nano SEM 650 with Backscatter electron imaging and an EDS attachment chemical mapping. The IMC also holds Nikon Eclipse 800 and A1 (Laser) Confocal microscopes, useful for characterizing microporosity in Earth materials. The IMC also holds a ThermoScientific K-ALPHA X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer used for characterizing the elemental composition, chemical states, and concentrations on Earth material surfaces.
The University of Memphis also holds a High Performance Computing (HPC) center with a current (as of 2018) configuration that consists of 88 compute nodes with 3520 total CPU cores, 20736 GB total RAM and 61440 total GPU cores (see HPC for GPU details). All compute nodes are connected via EDR Infiniband (2:1 Blocking) and 1GbE for host/OOB management. Head and Login nodes are connected via EDR Infiniband and 10GbE for host/OOB management.
The Chemistry Department maintains a PerkinElmer Elan Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS), Varian ICP- Optical Emission Spectrometer (OES), Single-Crystal X-ray diffractometer system, and Flash EA Total Organic Carbon system.
The Physics Department maintains a Bruker D8 ADVANCE powder X-ray diffractometer with DiffracEVA peak matching software.
The Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) maintains a Zonge International ZEN ground penetrating radar system available to Earth Science researchers, a flat-bottom boat, Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) system of a SuperSting R8 with 56 electrodes and 10 m cable electrode spacing from Advanced Geosciences, Inc. (AGI).