Cathodoluminescence laboratory for Earth materials imaging (CATLUM)

Quantitative understanding of key processes in Earth Sciences is developed from integration of textural imaging with microanalysis of the elemental and isotopic composition of geological samples such as minerals, melt and fluid inclusions. Textural image analysis is typically based on optical and scanning electron microscopy, but many essential internal textural features can only be detected by cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging. Prominent examples where CL imaging has contributed to fundamental insight into Earth processes are the dynamics of subduction zones, the feedbacks between magma chamber dynamics and supervolcano eruptions, the hydrothermal evolution of giant metal ore deposits, and the evolution of the early Earth. This project is for setting up a new CL laboratory for Earth materials imaging at the Department of Geosciences and Geography. The laboratory will comprise two complementary state-of-the-art CL microscope systems, which will make it possible to perform high-resolution CL imaging of a wide range of Earth materials. The new CL laboratory will be used by several research groups from the Department of Geosciences and Geography, the Department of Physics and the Finnish Museum of Natural History, and will produce high-quality data for ongoing research projects in economic geology, igneous and metamorphic petrology, structural geology, sedimentary geology, solid Earth geophysics, climate research and paleontology. The CL laboratory will also serve the broader Finnish, Nordic and international research community by providing access to state-of-the-art CL imaging techniques.