Understanding the Fundamental Processes that Shape the Earth

Perform detailed investigations of clastic, carbonate, and evaporitic rocks and understand weathering and erosion processes that shaped the geological features of Earth. Use automated grain size and shape measurements to understand the environmental conditions of formation. Employ correlative microscopy to blend mineralogy data from polarized light microscopes and automated mineralogy to provide textural knowledge. Determine stratigraphic sequences from microfossils and use detailed data on an organism’s structure to identify species and development levels to provide geological timescales.

Traditional paleontological research has required samples to be removed from storage media or cut out from their host rock. Non-destructive imaging of irreplaceable samples can be accomplished using multiscale 3D X-ray microscopy. This allows you to make 3D morphological measurements on internal structures without interfering with the sample in any way.

Improving ore deposit knowledge, refining our understanding of oregenesis and understanding more effective ways of extracting valuable ore is critical in ensuring we have resources available for future generations. For these studies we can combine optical, electron, and X-ray microscopy to help characterize and understand these ore deposits.

The science of mineral physics involves the understanding of the physical properties of the materials that comprise the Earth and other planets. It provides a critical link between fundamental petrological knowledge, and the more esoteric observations of seismic, magnetic, and geodynamic properties of rocks and the Earth. Understanding mineral properties at the micro-to-nano scale involves a combination of empirical observations of natural samples and experimental petrology. In other forms of geoscience, we look at a sample to understand something bigger; in mineral physics, we look at features much smaller than the sample.

Training the geoscientists of the future is essential for the health of geoscience as a whole. The ZEISS teaching microscope portfolio offers a software platform enabling efficient and shared learning. A ZEISS Digital Classroom provides a suite of interconnected WIFI-enabled petrographic light microscopes that allow students to acquire, annotate and share their images, from wherever they are.