Physical Laboratory

In the Physical Laboratory, experiments are performed to study mainly the interactions of sediment and water, but also measure rheological properties of sediment and prepare samples for further analysis in the other labs. In detail, the following research topics are addressed: Transport and Transformation of Organic Matter through River Transport, Erodibility and erosivity in fluvial bedrock erosion, Interactions of chemical and physical processes in rivers, and Shear Force of Fungal Mycelium.

The Physical Laboratory houses eight annular (ring-shaped) flumes which are currently being used to investigate organic carbon oxidation and silicate weathering in river systems. The flumes are also well suited for fluvial sediment transport and abrasion studies and are available to use for interested scientists. The flumes were designed and built directly at GFZ. Similar to annular flumes, abrasion mills are used to study fluvial sediment transport. However, the main focus of this design is the interaction between the transported material and the stream bed, and therefore abrasion mills are more suitable to measure the erodibility of bedrock. The abrasion mills were designed and built directly at GFZ.