Geography
Physical laboratory resources
The physical laboratory resources consists of a specialised Advanced Physical Laboratory to support the teaching and research activities in the Geography programme.
The laboratory is available for use by staff and postgraduate students during normal opening hours of the building. Supervised activities such as undergraduate teaching practicals and Level III dissertation work take place between 0900-1700 hours (Friday until 1630), with the latter by appointment with the Laboratory Manager.
Prior to using any of the facilities staff and students must make themselves familiar with the guide on Good Laboratory Practice, which forms part of the Departmental Health and Safety Code of Practice. Copies are available from the Laboratory Manager.
Personal Protective Equipment, such as laboratory coats, safety spectacles and gloves are provided by the Department. For fieldwork luminous coats, wellington boots and thigh waders are available if required.
Advanced Physical Laboratory
Located on the third floor of Buckingham Building (Rm3.7), the Advanced Physical Laboratory is divided into three work areas for the investigation of earth surface materials. Adjacent to this Laboratory is the office of the Laboratory Manager, who provides a support basis for students and staff and is in charge of the Physical Laboratory Resources, including the Meteorology Laboratory.
General laboratory and sample preparation facilities
- Drying ovens, various sizes including Carbolite High Temperature oven
- Desiccators
- Muffle furnace
- Centrifuges
- Shakers with various attachment
- Water baths
- Hotplates, including single and multiple hotplates with magnetic stirrers
- Vacuum pumps
- Fume cupboards, one with automatic washing down system
- Fridge/freezer for sample and stock solution storage only
- Balance Room containing various analytical and top pan precision balances
- Ultrasonic baths
- Autoclave
- Distillation and deionizer apparatus
Particle size analysis facilities
- Sieves and sieve shaker for wet and dry sieving
- Sample dividers
- Sedimentation apparatus
- Malvern Mastersizer 2000, a Laser Diffraction Particle Size Analyser, measuring grain size distribution from 2000 mm down to 0.02 mm
Chemical analysis facilities
- SpectrAA 22d Fast Sequential atomic absorption spectrophotometer with Sample Introduction Pump System (SIPS)
- Flame photometer
- UV/visible spectrophotometer
- pH meters
Other facilities
- Stereomicroscopes, various models (including zoom, vernier and polarizing) with 35mm camera, video camera and monitor attachment
- Rainfall simulator
- Tullgren funnel
- Environmental test chamber for simulating temperature and humidity cycles
Field equipment store
Located on the third floor of Buckingham Building the store holds a wide range of equipment for sample collection and taking measurements in the field. Listed below is the main equipment available to staff and students.
Small field equipment
- Measuring tapes of 3m, 30m, 50m and 100m
- Vernier callipers and pebble roundness charts
- Profile measuring devices
- Damp detectors
- Quadrats, point frames, increment corer of various sizes
- Girth tape
- Ranging poles
- Compasses
- Measuring poles
- Abney level and clinometers
- Altimeters
- Metal detector and Radiodetection Magnatrack Fieldmagnetics
- Surveying equipment see Photogrammetry
Equipment for measuring hydrological processes
- Peak velocity meter
- Water level recorders
- Partech suspended solids monitoring equipment with various sensors
- Ott current meters and SEBA mini current meter
- Helley Smith bedload sampler
- Electromagnetic current meter
- Flume, 8 metre standard tilting flow channel
Instruments for analysis in the field
- TRIME-FM portable soil moisture meter
- pH-meters
- Conductivity meter
- Dissolved oxygen meter
- Relative humidity meter
- Temperature probes
- Lux meter
- Rapid nutrient analyser
- Palin-watertest photometer system for the testing of wide range parameter relative to natural, drinking and industrial application