The Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Laboratory (SIBL) provides analytical facilities and technical expertise to members of the Stanford community who need to determine stable isotope ratios of a variety of organic and inorganic materials from both terrestrial and marine environments. The facility has the ability to measure C, N, O (including 17O), H, and S in plant and animal tissue, soils, minerals, and waters. Moreover, by the use of infrared lasers and micro-drill techniques it provides capabilities for high-spatial resolution isotopic measurements. The laboratory is also making investments in the development of Cavity Ring-Down Laser Spectroscopy for a variety of lab and field based innovations in stable isotopic analyses.

We comprehensively examine the evolution of the Earth's crust using highly integrated geochronologic approaches conducted in a wide spectrum of analytical facilities that are all housed within the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences. Our highly collaborative research provides fundamental data to many disciplines throughout the geosciences, including tectonics, geodynamics, petrology, geochemistry, geomorphology, sedimentology, stratigraphy, paleontology, and paleoclimatology.

This facility operates three analytical instruments with widespread applications in the Earth and Materials Sciences. The Electron Probe Microanalyzer (EPMA) provides highly accurate major and minor element compositional data on solid materials at the micron scale, and is housed in the Stanford Nanocharacterization Laboratory (www.stanford.edu/group/snl/). A user-friendly powder X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) are located in the Green building, and provide ready access to mineral identification and imaging.

These laboratories house a broad range of shared equipment for the initial steps of preparing rock samples. Numerous SES research groups use these labs, before completing more specialized procedures in their own facilities. Equipment is available for rock sawing, polishing, coring, crushing, grinding, powdering, sieving, washing, drying, separating, concentrating, etc.

The Spatial Analysis Center is a shared facility of the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences that supports research on environmental changes based on remote sensing and geographic information systems. It provides state-of-the-art equipment and expertise for Stanford researchers who conduct geospatial analyses. Ongoing research projects at SAC combine remote sensing data from optical sensors at high to coarse spatial resolutions with data from a variety of other datasources.

The ICPMS/TIMS Facility, also known as the Plasma Lab, is a state-of-the-art facility for the analysis of isotopes and trace elements using mass spectrometry. The array of equipment in the laboratory includes a Nu AttoM high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS), a Nu Plasma HR multi-collector ICP-MS, a Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer (TIMS) and a specially designed Picotrace metal-free low particulate clean laboratory. The facility is open to collaboration with members of the Stanford community.

The research at the Stanford Rock Physics Laboratory focuses on experiments designed to understand the connections between geophysical properties measured at the surface of the Earth or within boreholes with the intrinsic properties of rocks – i.e., mineralogy, porosity, pore fluids, stress conditions, and the overall rock architecture such as laminations, fractures, and the intricate pore network.