Geophysical Field Equipment

Location: Kathleen Lonsdale Building, Basement Level
Telephone Extension: 56317
Laboratory Manager: Neil Hughes

General conditions for borrowing

1. Management of the equipment is by Neil Hughes .

2. Bookings should be made by contacting Neil Hughes .

3. Insurance:
- For UCL members, extra insurance must be arranged when the equipment is taken off-site. This must be arranged through the departmental administrator (Mrs Celine Ahmed). You must provide an account code to which this is to be charged.

- For non-UCL members, insurance must be arranged by your institution. Any transit arrangements made for the equipment must be met by your institution’s insurance polices. Please notify your department of any arrangements made.

4. Priority for booking will be given in the following order:

1. Taught courses and taught field classes
2. Research projects by staff and students
3. Research projects in other UCL departments

5. Trained personnel only will be allowed to use the equipment.

6. Technical support will be provided by Neil Hughes. Serious problems can only be dealt with by the manufacturer.

7. Repairs. In the event of equipment being damaged it is the responsibility of the member of staff running or supervising project work to report any problems to Professor Peter Sammonds or Neil Hughes.

8. Equipment must be checked out and checked back in again by Neil Hughes

9. A small charge will be made for use, to be put towards equipment maintenance and upkeep.

10. Commercial hire rates are negotiable.

11. Separate conditions apply for the Ground Penetrating Radar

Geophysics field equipment bookings calendar

If your chosen dates are available, please confirm availability by emailing Neil Hughes as far in advance as possible with your request, stating:

Equipment Required
Dates
Purpose and Location of where equipment will be used.

Google Calendar Widget Placeholdern.hughesucl@gmail.com

General Conditions of Use:

Geophysics field equipment is available for use by qualified staff and students members of the London Colleges Geophysics Field Equipment Pool.

List of Equipment

Ground Penetrating Radar(GPR)

Sensors and Software pulse EKKO PE-100A GPR (1000V) system with 100 and 200MHz antennae.

Introduction

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has recently become the must-do geophysical survey technique because of its ease of use and unparalleled ability to image the near sub-surface in detail. In archaeology it is used to locate burial grounds and determine buried structures (most famously, the Tomb of Christ beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulchre). In geology it is used to map sedimentary structures (e.g. ancient lake beds, braided river channels). In geography it is used to characterize sand dunes, glacial moraines and glacial ice stratigraphy. In civil engineering it is used for site investigation, to determine soil properties, log deterioration in structures (such as bridges) and locate utilities, buried pipes and cables. In environmental science it is used to locate buried waste drums, groundwater, contaminant leaks or plumes.

Details of equipment

Purchased: 2002 Cost: £30k Condition: Excellent

Funded by: UCL Supplementary Teaching Equipment Grant (50%); Birkbeck College, School of Earth Sciences (50%).

Notes: The equipment is not weather-proof so plastic bags must be taped around transmitter & receiver, and the laptop needs to be kept dry. Car battery is needed for operation.

GPR equipment is also available from Kings College. Contact Mark Mulligan for further details.

Borrowing the equipment Conditions Of Use:
1. Management of the equipment loans is by Dr Charlie Bristow (Birkbeck College)

2. Booking Requests should be made through Dr Charlie Bristow or Neil Hughes.

3. Insurance: The equipment is owned by UCL and insured by UCL.

- For UCL members, extra insurance must be arranged when the equipment is taken off-site. This must be arranged through the departmental administrator (Mrs Celine Ahmed). You must provide an account code to which this is to be charged.

- For non-UCL members, insurance must be arranged by your institution. Any transit arrangements made for the equipment must be met by your institution’s insurance polices. Please notify your department of any arrangements made.

4. Priority will be given in the following order:

1. Taught courses and taught field classes in Birkbeck Earth Sciences, UCL Earth Sciences and Civil Engineering
2. BSc, MSci, MRes and PhD student projects
3. Projects by academic staff members of the Birkbeck Earth Sciences and UCL Earth Sciences
4. Research projects in other Birkbeck and UCL departments.

5. Trained personnel only, authorised by Dr Charlie Bristow, will be allowed to use the equipment.

6. Technical support will be provided by Neil Hughes. Serious problems can only be dealt with by the manufacturer.

7. Repairs. In the event of equipment being damaged it is the responsibility of the member of staff running or supervising project work to report any problems to Dr Charlie Bristow and Neil Hughes.

8. Equipment must be checked out and checked back in again by Neil Hughes.

9. A charge will be made for use, to be put towards equipment maintenance and upkeep.

Seismic

Geode 12-channel in-field Seismograph

Seismic surveying is one of the most effective ways to explore rock and subsoil. It is ideal for finding groundwater, oil and useful minerals. Common applications include:

Depth to Bedrock
Site Investigation
Geotechnical Properties
Groundwater Exploration
Hydrocarbon and Coal Exploration

The new Geode seismic recorder is the next generation of seismic recording systems. It can be used for refraction or reflection, downhole or VSP - even tomography surveys.

Details of equipment: GEODE 12-CHANNEL IN-FIELD SEISMOGRAPH

With built-in high-speed connection to interface with PC-compatible. Suitable for seismic reflection, refraction, downhole, cross-hole, surface wave, and tomography surveys, and vibration and earthquake monitoring.High-speed over sampling combined with digital signal processing give a 24-bit result using Crystal Semiconductor sigma-delta A/Ds. Extra wide bandwidth (1.75 Hz to 20 kHz) permits high- resolution user-selectable sampling intervals from 20 microseconds to 16 milliseconds. Data acquired and summed in 32-bit stacker then transferred back to host computer for storage in SEG2 format on hard drive. Built-in pretrigger and 16,000 sample memory for each channel. Includes software selectable low-cut, high-cut, or notch real-time digital display filters for noise reduction.

Purchased: 2003 Cost: £12k Condition: Excellent
Funded by: UCL Department of Earth Sciences

Gravimeter

Sodin 420-T Gravimeter; UCL Earth Sciences

Gravity surveying involves the measurement of the Earth's gravitational field, which is a function of:

Distance from the centre of the Earth
Centrifugal acceleration due to the Earth's rotation
The distribution of the mass, which is controlled by topography and changes in the density of rocks

After making the necessary corrections to the recorded data, the final gravity anomaly map represents variation in the mass distribution in the Earth. The method is being increasingly used in the location of cavities, voids, and abandoned mine shafts. [Geomatrix Earth Sciences Ltd.]

Details of equipment: Sodin 420-TGravimeter with thermostatic control

Purchased: 1973 Cost: £20k Condition: Fair

Funded by: UCL Department of Earth Sciences

Notes: The Sodin gravimeter is difficult to operate and very difficult to transport as it cannot be clamped (sharp sideways accelerations and tilting past 45o can cause severe damage). Due to the fragile nature of this equipment, it is not available for hire.

Magnetometers

In a magnetic survey variations in the Earth's magnetic field are measured. The method has the advantage of being one of the easiest and cheapest geophysical techniques to carry out, since large areas can be covered quickly at a low cost and few corrections to the field data are required.

Magnetic surveying has been widely used for many years in the mineral and oil exploration industries but with recent advances in the speed of operation and resolution of portable systems can be used for industrial and environmental applications such as the detection of abandoned mine shafts and adits, detection of man-made targets such as brick lined shafts or the remains of ancient dwellings. Additionally the technique can be used for the location of underground storage tanks and buried steel drums, as well as high resolution archaeological surveys. [Geomatrix Earth Sciences Ltd.]

Geometrics 856 Proton Precision Magnetometer

Purchased: 2006 Cost: £5k Condition: Excellent Funded by: UCL Department of Earth Sciences

Purchased: 2006 Cost: £5k Condition: Excellent
Funded by: UCL Department of Earth Sciences

Geometrics 858 Cesium Vapour Magnetometer

Purchased: 2004 Cost: £30,000 Condition: Excellent Funded By: UCL Earth Sciences, UCL Institute of Archeolgy, Birbeck Archeology & RHUL Earth Sciences

Purchased: 2004 Cost: £30,000 Condition: Excellent
Funded By: UCL Earth Sciences, UCL Institute of Archeolgy, Birbeck Archeology & RHUL Earth Sciences

Communications Equipment

Satellite phone

Applied Satellite Technology GMP 2000

Worldwide coverage

Purchased: 1999 Cost: £3k Condition: Good
Funded by: UCL Friends

Walkie-talkies

(i) 6 x ICOM IC-F22 Professional Radios

Use in the UK on licensed commercial radio frequency

Use in Europe on PMR frequency
Range up to 20km

Purchased: 2003 Cost: £1.5k Condition: Excellent
Funded by: UCL Friends & Department of Earth Sciences

(ii) 6 x Cobra PMR Radios

Use in the UK/Europe on PMR frequency.

Range up to 3km

Purchased: 2006 Cost £200 Condition:Excellent
Funded by UCL Earth Sciences

Field Sampling

Akkerman Sediment Coring Rig & Portable Rock Saw

(i) Sediment coring rig

Akkerman sediment coring system

Includes tripod with extended legs, winch, 100m wire, core barrels and Akkerman Purchased: 1999 Cost: £15k Condition: Good
Funded by: University of London Central Research Fund and NERC

(ii)Borrowing the equipment

Available to all University of London staff and students. General conditions of use apply

GPS

4 Garmin Etrex Summit GPS Units

12-channel handheld global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver

Purchased: 1999 Cost: £1k Condition: Good
Funded by: UCL Department of Earth Sciences

9 Garmin eTrex Vista® HCx GPS Units

Hand held, High sensitivity, WAAS-enabled, Colour GPS receiver

Purchased 2008 Cost £2000