The Laboratory of Rock Magnetism is equipped with high-end facilities for field sampling of oriented specimens, measurements of magnetic susceptibility and its anisotropy, thermomagnetic analysis, remanent magnetization measurements, alternating field demagnetization, and pulse and anhysteretic magnetization. The AGICO software package is used for statistical data processing and interpretation.
We use hand-held gasoline-powered drills Tanaka TED-262 and Hitachi DW25EF with an in-house water circulation system and diamond-tipped non-magnetic drill bids for collecting oriented samples in the field. The lab also provides a sample preparation room including a table laboratory drill OPTIdrill B 32, single-blade rock saw, and a bronze anvil apparatus for preparation of powdered samples.
The Laboratory of Rock Magnetism was founded in 2010 thanks to the financial support from the Faculty of Science, Charles University and in part through the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic Research Plan No. MSM0021620855.
The laboratory apparatuses designed for magnetic susceptibility measurements include a state-of-the-art AGICO Kappabridge KLY5 equipped with a 3D rotator, CS4 Furnace, and CS-L Cryostat.
In 2020, the laboratory was moved to a larger and fully renovated room, and was expanded with an AGICO JR-6A automatic spinner magnetometer, LDA5 alternating field demagnetizer with associated PAM1 anhysteric/pulse magnetizer apparatus. The laboratory expansion was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic through the projects OPVV ERDF II No. CZ.02.2.67/0.0/0.0/18_057/0013298 and by the Faculty of Science, Charles University.
Our main goals are to develop geologic applications of the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) and anisotropy of remanent magnetization (ARM) methods, to transfer this knowledge to our undergraduate and graduate students, and to promote research in rock magnetism at the Charles University. The Laboratory has been designed primarily for non-commercial scientific purposes, for students and faculty members. Using the Laboratory is free of charge for undergraduate students of the Charles University on the understanding that the users strictly follow the operating instructions.
Reservation of the laboratory time schedule and service rates for Charles University graduate students, academic staff as well as for guests outside of Charles University are on demand to the lab manager.
The total investment into the facility exceeded 5,700,000 CZK (228,000 EUR) excluding construction works and other related computational and office equipment.
Contact: Filip Tomek, email: filip.tomek@natur.cuni.cz, phone: 221951465
