Labs and research facilities for Earth and Planetary Sciences

Our research and teaching in Earth and planetary systems are supported by a range of labs. We share expertise and facilities with UCL, right next door to Birkbeck in Bloomsbury, central London, giving you access to a wide range of top-quality research equipment.

Find out more about hiring our facilities.

Clean Laboratory

This metal-free, positive pressure clean room (class 100) is used to prepare rock, soil and water samples to analyse trace levels of metals.

Microprobe Suite

The suite enables in-situ analysis of minerals and other geological material.

Petrology Suite

This unique teaching suite provides 67 workstations, each linked to a mineralogical microprobe.

London Geochemistry and Isotope Centre

We carry out chemical and isotopic investigations of natural materials (rocks, soils, waters, air) using a variety of analytical and experimental approaches.

London Geochronology Centre

The Lab’s research covers three main areas: tectonic studies, provenance studies and methods development.