Facilities

The Rooney Geochronology Clean Lab spaces are part of the Yale Metals Geochemistry Center and are equipped with all-plastic fume hoods, laminar flow benches and casework, centrifuges, manual and semi-automated columns for trace element separation. The center also houses several high sensitivity and precision inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers. Our analytical capabilities include a Thermo Fisher Neptune-Plus MC-ICP-MS, a Thermo Fisher Triton-Plus TIMS, a Thermo Fisher Element-XR magnetic sector ICP-MS and a Thermo Fisher iCAP TQ ICP-MS. All of the ultra-clean and mass spectrometer laboratories are under positive air-pressure with respect to the building hallways and have controlled temperature and humidity levels. The Geochemistry Center is adjacent to the Microprobe Facility, which houses a JEOL Hyperprobe electron microprobe. Both the Metal Geochemistry Center and the Microprobe Facility have full time technicians.

The department also has and maintains a standard sample preparation facility, which has saws, clean powdering mills, and updated machinery to make thin sections, and a petrography center, which has a scanning electron microscope with a technician and several light microscopes.