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Facilities

Facilities that support research in Sedimentary Geology and Paleontology are housed within three different locations on the UK campus in Lexington, KY: (a) the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the Slone Research Building; (b) the Ketucky Geological Survey in the Minerals Management and Resources Building; and (c) the Center for Applied Energy Research, located in CAER Research Park north of campus.

SER2L (http://www.ser2l.com/#environments), directed by Professor Kevin Yeager, is one of the premier lab spaces in the Slone Building. Research at SER2L focuses on questions involving sediment sourcing, transport, mixing and accumulation, and related processes in geologically "young" (Pleistocene to modern) sediments found in contemporary sedimentary systems, including rivers and their floodplains, marshes, deltas, lakes, estuaries, coastal and open ocean settings. In addition to methods in geochemistry, sedimentology, geomorphology, and spatial analysis,  SER2L researchers utilizes the unique temporal and chemical characteristics of both fallout and lithogenic radionuclides (7Be, 137Cs, 210Pb, 239,240Pu, 234Th, 232Th, 230Th, 228Th) to examine a range of geological, biological, and chemical processes in these environments.

 

The Petroleum Geosystems facilities in the Slone Building consist of the Pioneer Stratigraphy and Paleoenvironments Lab (director Mike McGlue) and the Basin Research Lab. Both labs were opened in 2014 (see http://ees.as.uky.edu/pioneer-natural-resources-stratigraphy-and-paleo-…). The Pioneer Lab maintains a Sedigraph particle size analyer, a Bruker Tracer IV hand-held XRF, a research grade petrographic microscope, and a fully portable field kit for the acquisition of high resolution marine type seismic profiles, side scan sonar, and long sediment cores. The lab also has a seismic workstation with Kigdom Suite and Petra.  The Basin Research Lab maintains computer workstations for subsurface data analysis.  EES is currently searching for a tenure track faculty member to act as the director of this facility. More information on that position can be found here: http://ees.as.uky.edu/new-tenure-track-faculty-position.