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.

In our laboratory, the stable isotopes of the light elements carbon (C), nitrogen (N), oxygen (O) and hydrogen (H) in continental geoarchives such as lake sediments and speleothems as well as in precipitation and surface water are measured.
Stable isotopes are non-radioactive nuclides of an element with the same number of protons and different numbers of neutrons and thus different atomic masses. This results in different physical properties that can lead to a shift in the isotope ratios in …

The laboratory for XRF (X-ray Fluorescence) Element Scanning focusses on non-destructive and continuous core analyses. These analyses allow detailed geochemical characterisation of complete sediment cores down to individual layers and grains. Bridging these scales is achieved by combining XRF core scanning, micro-XRF scanning of epoxy impregnated sediment blocks or thin sections, and Scanning Electron microscope (SEM) analyses.

The developments and research are focused on improving …

In the SedLab we analyze the compositional properties of sediments. Measuring the full range of grain size distributions from a few nanometers to centimeters and determine the shape of each single grain. Disentangling sediments allows scientists to infer the history of the sediments, interpret sedimentary archives and learn about the processes that have generated and transported the sediments.
The SedLab of the geomorphology section is fully equipped lab for measuring routinely large …