Facilities

Facilities for Reseach in Geography

The School of Geography and Earth Sciences is amongst the most advanced in Canada in terms of its experience in training candidates for advanced degrees.
The facilities include: analytic and experimental laboratories for climatology, and geomorphology; a geographic information system laboratory; and a comprehensive map collection.

Facilities for Reseach in Earth & Environmental Sciences

The School of Geography and Earth Sciences is well equipped with analytical facilities including mass spectrometers, X-ray fluorescence, atomic absorption spectrometers, and gamma ray spectrometer. Transmission and scanning electron microscopes with elemental analysis facilities are available and commonly used. School facilities for Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) and thermoluminescence (TL) age-dating techniques have been used in the study of archaeological sites, earthquake recurrence rates, coastal sediments and hominid evolution. There are special laboratories for the study of aqueous geochemistry, experimental sedimentology, X-ray diffraction and fluorescence, rock/mineral analysis, radiochemistry, mass spectrometry and fossils.

The School operates a microcomputer laboratory comprising a suite of PC's with associated printers, plotters and flat-bed scanners. At the undergraduate level specific courses have been developed around the application of software packages to geological problems. The School maintains a suite of geophysical equipment for the acquisition of magnetic, gravity and IP/Resistivity data. In addition, an industry standard computing system is used for the imaging of geophysical and remote sensing information and interpretive modeling of potential field data. The choice of thesis topic is made in light of the interests of the student and the support available from research grants.