Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Marine Minerals Laboratory

Learn about the Marine Minerals Laboratory Suite at the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California.

Amy Gartman waits for an X-ray diffractometer
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Amy Gartman waits for an X-ray diffractometer to analyze samples of hydrothermal sulfide minerals. 

In the Marine Minerals laboratory suite, we have an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer, rock saw, shatterbox, and petrographic microscopes. We do mineral identification and classification, molecular identification, and rock cutting and sampling, and we prepare samples for XRD and geochemical techniques.