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Dan Morgan

Research Lab

I maintain lab space in Stevenson Center 1 and 5 for mineral separations. Primarily, we isolate quartz and zircon minerals from whole rock or bulk sediment samples. In these spaces we can:

  • Cut, crush, pulverize, and sieve samples.
  • Clean samples with dilute acids and a sonicbath.
  • Perform density (LST) and magnetic (Frantz) separations.
  • Perform surfactant separations that distinguish minerals based on fracture and cleavage patterns
  • Dissolve minerals in Nitric, Hydrofluoric, and Hydrochloric acids.
  • Prepare samples for the SEM and LA-ICP-MS by mounting the samples in epoxy and polishing them.

Updates from the lab can be seen on my Twitter page: https://twitter.com/DMantarctica. Recent tweets should also show on the sidebar to the right. Some pictures from the field and research lab are shown below.

Collecting rock samples in Ong Valley, Antarctica, 2017.
Cutting rock samples.
Crushing rock samples in the disc mill.
Pulverized samples for XRF analysis.
Glass discs for XRF analysis.
A handheld spectrometer to measure reflected light from a rock sample.
Hand magnet.
LST density separation.
LST density separation.
Frantz magnetic separator
The crew in 2017.
A surfactant, “froth,” separation to get rid of minerals with cleavage planes.
A surfactant, “froth,” separation to get rid of minerals with cleavage planes.
A surfactant, “froth,” separation to get rid of minerals with cleavage planes.
Rinsing samples from hydrofluoric acid.
Filtering samples in preparation for analysis on the ICP-OES.
Some clean quartz samples ready for an “Aluminum check” in the ICP-OES.
Weighing samples for salt analysis.
Samples ready for anion and cation analysis on the ICP-OES and IC.
Clean quartz!
So much quartz!
Zircons!