Department of Geology

Facilities

• Library
  The departmental library has a large collection of recent Reference Books, Text Books and sets of foreign and Indian Journals. There are over 2000 Text Books including 244 books purchased by the Book Bank of the Pick and Hammer Club. The university library subscribes to about 34 journals for the departmental library. In addition, the library receives a number of journals and publications in exchange for the publications of the Centre of Advanced Study in Geology, Bulletin of the Indian Geologists' Association and Research Bulletin of the Panjab University. The departmental library also has a complete set of catalogue of Foraminifera (partly in microfilm) and Ostracoda and old publications of the Geological Survey of India (in microfilms). Two microfilm Readers are available in the library. The books and journals listed above are besides those in the collection of the Univesity Library, where several additional reference books, text books and back-sets of journals are kept.
• Museum
  The Museum of the department houses a rich collection of fossils, rocks and minerals. It is frequently visited by the scientists and other visitors from different parts of the country and abroad. The fossil and other collection are also a great attraction for college and school children of the city. These collections are displayed in three separate halls as under :
  1. Palaeontology Hall:
     It houses more than 2000 invertebrate fossils from the remote parts of Himalaya and Peninsular India besides 500 vertebrate fossils. The main attractions of this hall are exhibits showing the evolution of life through the ages and a rare collection of vertebrate fossils from the Siwaliks (above right). In addition, the collection also include rare fossil dinosaur skeletal (Rajasaurus narmadaensis) and egg remains. Besides, collections are also available from the Geological Survey of India, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow, Geological Survey of India, Geological Survey of Great Britain, Australia and Standard Ward's collection for teaching and research purposes. The Museum is also the repository of more than 1200 micro-fossil specimens/thin sections and 1500 mega-fossils.
  2. Himalayan Geology Hall:
     This section is devoted to exhibit of the various geological sequences found in the different parts of the Himalayas. The collections include those from Simla, Nainital, Mussoorie and Assam. Rock depicting structural features in Himalayas are also displayed here. The walls have been used for elucidating geological maps and cross-sections through the various parts of the Himalayas.
  3. Rocks and Minerals Hall:
     The Hall houses over 2000 rocks and minerals presented by the Geological Survey of India and State Geological Surveys of Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Haryana. The rocks and minerals received from Russia, Scotland, Sweden and Australia further enrich the collection. The showcases containing precious and semi-precious stones, mineral wealth of India, atomic minerals and wall map showing the distribution of minerals in India are the other attractive features of the museum.
• Chemical Laboratory
  The Laboratory is well equipped for carrying out major and trace elements analysis. The sophisticated instruments include, EEJ, Flame Photometer, Hilger & Watt Spectrophotometer (UVISPEC) and Pye Unichem Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (Model SP-2900), Lange Colorimeter, Automatic titrator and other instruments for wet analysis. The Direct-Q is a water purification system which produces high purity water directly from portable tap water.The system combines Reverse osmosis (RO) and Ion Exchange technology to accomplish this.
• Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) Laboratory
  The Japanese made JEOY JSM-25S Scanning Electron Microscope (below) has served the research purpose not only at the CAS in Geology but also that of other research institution in various parts of the country. The instrument is ideally suited to carry out work on Biomineralization and Ultrastructure of various fossil organisms.
• Optical Laboratory
  Out of sixteen Advanced Research Microscope in the Department, four are housed in the Optical Laboratory. The Optical Laboratory is equipped to determine the refractive indices with Abbe and Jelley refractometers, birefringence with Break Compensator, optical axial angle, optic orientation, anorthite content and plagioclase twin laws with . and 5 axes universal stages interfacial angles of natural crystals with reflecting goniometer, volumetric modal percentage with point counters. Besides the above, facilities also exist for the projection and sketching of sections of rock and minerals.
• Geotechnical Laboratory
  The geotechnical laboratory is equipped with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), a GSSI 200 MHz antenna which has depth penetration up to 10 meters and a 400 MHz antenna with depth penetration of 5 meters, these GPR are used for geophysical, archaeological, geological surveys and utility scanning. A Leica brand Total Station and a Leica brand GNSS RTK Rover (D-GPS) is available in the laboratory which are used in mapping and surveys. The lab has Geotechnical instruments like Uniaxial Compression Testing (UCS) machine, Point Load Testing machine, Ro-tap Sieve Shaker, Speed moisture Meter, Relative Density Apparatus, VW Tilt Meter, Eco Pro Accelerograph. The lab is also equipped with software RADAN-7 for GPR data processing and Leica Infinity for GPS and Total Station Data processing.
• Micropalaeontology Laboratory
  The micropalaeontology laboratory is well-equipped for the preparation of rock samples for studying foraminifers, ostracodes, conodonts and other groups of microfossils. Besides several Binocular Microscopes and other routine equipments, the laboratory also has an Ultrasonic Vibrator and a machine for cutting serial sections of microfossils. A separate room (No. 117) for macerating rock samples forms part of the Micropalaeontology Laboratory.
• Computer & GIS Laboratory
  A fully equipped Computer lab with advanced work stations, scanners, printers and geological softwares is available for both students and faculty member.
• Photography and Duplication Section
  The Centre has a well-equipped Photographic and duplicating section where all types of photographic work like photomicrography of thin sections of fossils and rocks etc., photography of hand specimens of fossils, rock and minerals, photocopying of maps and other illustrations and preparation of projection slides, transparencies etc. is undertaken. In all, there are eight advanced cameras, sixteen field cameras, three photo-enlargers and other routine darkroom accessories.
• Celler
  The cellar which is located south of the main building has a total area of 791.80 sq.m. The following five sections are located in the cellar :
  (1) Section -Cutting Laboratory: There are ten grinding machines, three polishing and grinding machines, two section cutting machines, one each grinding and cutting machine, ore polishing machine and one thin section cutting machine for thin sections of microfossils. The laboratory is fully equipped to undertake any type of section cutting, polishing work etc.
  (2) Drawing Section :
  (3) Modelling Section :
  (4) Workshop : Facilities for routine electrical and mechnical repairs are avilable in the workshop.
  (5) Store rooms for fossils etc. The main bulk of fossil, mineral and rock collections for exchange and other purposes are housed in 14 cubicles where adequate space is available for their storage.