I am the new steward of Prof. Dana Johnston's experimental petrology lab. If you have Flash, you will see a 360 degree tour below.

The lab is fully equipped with:

• Two Deltech gas mixing furnaces for growing crystals and making synthetic glasses
• Two rapid-quench cold-seal pressure vessels, for experiments up to 850C and 2 kbar
• Two piston-cylinders, for experiments up to 2000C and 7-20 kbar
• Ancillary equipment for sample preparation

Many of the experiments we wish to conduct require us to build our own apparatus(es). Below are some of the more successful examples.

Calcite crystallizer (version 2)
Schematic of a homemade - using LabView - autotitration system built by undergrad Matt Gonzales:

Calcite crystallizer (version 3)
Eventually, good initial experimental results warranted the purchase of parts to build the real deal:

Plume-slab experiments

Fish tank filled with corn syrup. Water bubble, or "plume," is pumped through a one-way valve in the bottom. "Slab" is driven along a threaded rod by a motor.