New Geology Lab Opens

The modern Hoffman Laboratory, recently added to Harvard's Peabody Museum, the first permanent home of the University's Geology Department.

While primarily for research, the laboratories are connected to the Museum, which houses the geology classrooms and library.

Geology, like many other sciences, is turning more and more from field work to lab research. Over half of the graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in the department are now doing research in the laboratory. Research groups headed by five senior geologists will conduct studies in the new Hoffman Laboratory.

Francis Birch, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology and Chairman of the Department, is studying the effects of high temperatures and pressures on minerals. By measuring the velocity of sound waves in rocks under various pressures, Birch has used seismic soundings to help geologists understand the structure of the earth's crust.

Knowledge of the chemical composition of rocks and natural waters has been extended by studies carried out by Robert Garrels, professor of Geology. Carrels has observed the ion exchange between minerals and rocks in water, using sediments as permeable membranes for these ions.

Clifford Frondel, professor of Mineralogy, has investigated the synthesis of rich minerals as tourmaline and zircon under moderate temperatures and pressures.

Raymond Siever, associate professor of Geology, is concerned with the chemical oasis of rock formation from sediments in lakes and rivers and of the deposition of rinestone in the oceans.