The center is part of the UW Libraries system and houses books, theses, dissertations, journals, maps and governmental publications related to geology, geophysics, physical geography, mining and petroleum geology 3 and geological engineering. To date, collections total 60,345 volumes, 29,927 microforms, 2,899 maps and 7,200 infrared aerial photographs of Wyoming. The Brinkerhoff Geology Library can be found on the web at:

http://www-lib.uwyo.edu/uwlibs/geo.htm

The Geology and Geophysics Department at the University of Wyoming supports state-of-the-art instrumentation and laboratories for characterization of chemical composition, crystalline structure, and morphology of both natural and man-made solid materials. Our instruments are housed in laboratories designed specifically for these applications in our new 65,500 square foot MRRC building on the campus of the University of Wyoming.

The Lab has a JEOL JXA-8900 Electron Microprobe with 5 fully automated crystal spectrometers; a SCINTAG XDS2000 automated powder diffraction system equipped with a theta-theta goniometer and a solid state xray detector and a JEOL5800LV SEM equipped with a backscattered electron detector, a cathodoluminescence detector, and a light-element energy dispersive xray detector (capable of detection of elements with atomic number of 5 or greater) in addition to the standard secondary electron detector. We have recently added a HKL Electron Backscatter Diffraction System (EBSD) (and colloidal polishing facility) to our SEM to provide a facility to measure the full 3-D crystallographic properies of materials. For further details please see: http://mcl.gg.uwyo.edu/services.htm

The Laser Laboratory, currently housed in the ESB basement for excellent vibration isolation, contains a high power 10 Hz Nd:YAG pulsed laser, optical parametric oscillator for frequency tuning, and optics for a technique called second harmonic generation (SHG) that provides information about the noncentrosymmetric interface between two effectively centrosymmetric bulk phases. This allows direct, in-situ spectroscopic probing of the mineral-water interface or the mineral-gas interface and supports fundamental research on chemical interactions between the materials of the Earth and their fluid surroundings (primarily water-rock interaction).

We also have a well-equipped scanning probe microscopy (SPM) laboratory currently housing two Digital Instruments Nanoscope III controller systems that operate a choice of microscopes and scanners. We have a Digital Instruements scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and Multimode atomic force micrsocope (AFM) supporting most SPM imaging techniques. We also have a Molecular imaging in-situ STM and AFM optimized for electrochemical imaging (we also have an EG&G potentiostate to support electrochemical SPM). We house a heater stage for the DI AFM, and we have a home-built and patented hydrothermal AFM (HAFM) capable of in-situ imaging in corrosive aqueous solutions at up to 170°C and 25 bars pressure. This microscope was designed here at UW and is now one of only 3 installations worldwide.

Supporting these two labs is a complete wet-chemical laboratory housing computer-controlled titration systems, balances, ovens, potentiometric techniques, and many others.