The laboratory for microscopy focuses on the specific requirements of microfacies analysis of lake sediments, but also offers a wide range of possibilities for other applications. Sedimentological, petrographic and microfacies analyses on all kinds of covered and uncovered thin sections and polished sections with transmitted and incident light are performed.

Petrography is a powerful tool to investigate rocks samples and loose preparates. By means of a microscope we characterize the morphology, texture and mineralogy of the components as well as to describe post-depositional features (diagenesis). This enables us to perform environmental, biostratigraphic and stable isotope analyses, as well as pore-system evolution studies. Additionally we use Digital Image Analysis to quantify sedimentary fabrics and pore space structures.

The preparation lab offers different preparation methods such as thin-section production, polishes, dye methods, hardening methods and others.

The sedimentology lab at the Permafrost Research section aims to study the transport and accumulation processes of permafrost-related deposits and classify sediment sequences in general. Therefore, the following parameters are investigated: sediment structure description, grain-size distribution and mass specific magnetic susceptibility.