Scanning Electron Microscope Laboratory

Digital Scanning Electron Microscope Zeiss DSM 962	SEM image of lacustine gastropod shell in micrite - Pleistocene. Ohio

F&M students and faculty use our scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer (EDX) for projects that are as diverse as they are fascinating. Petrology projects include the chemical mapping of hafnium zoning in zircons and trace element distributions in porphyry coppers. Sedimentology projects include the study of glacial sediments and analysis of calcite cements growth patterns in sedimentary rocks. Students with an interest in archeology use the SEM to study the textures of Native American redware pottery, the composition of pigments used in paintings from the middle ages and the texture and composition of Chinese jade carvings. Environmental projects include studying the distribution of heavy metals attached to soil particles from urban brown fields. Examples of student research projects that used the SEM include:

SUNDERLIN, KIMBERLY Diagenetic Alterations in Carbonate Glacial Lake Sediments; Hardin, County Ohio
ROWNAD, MARK Reactive Gas Mixtures in Glow Discharge Spectroscopies
Dietrich, Jeffery Glow Discharge: The Effects of Solution-Deposited Anions on a Silver Cathode Glow Discharge: The Effects of Solution-Deposited Anions on a Silver Cathode
SEEDS, KATHERINE Study of an unusually sulphide-poor Copper porphyry deposit in northern California
FREY, HOLLI M. (Honors) The Origin of Meter-Scale Submarine Cavities and Herringbone Calcite Cement in the Ledger Formation, York, Pennsylvania

for further information contact Steve Sylvester