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Geological Science Collections

30 January 2024

UC's School of Earth and Environment maintains significant collections of rocks, minerals, geochemical concentrates, macro-, and microfossils. Some parts of the collection are of national significance. Learn more about our Geological Science collections.

HOW TO APPLY

Collections policy

All postgraduate students should discuss the school’s collections policy with their supervisor(s) and Sacha Baldwin before they begin their field work. Thesis collections are a very important part of our catalogue and ensuring replicate specimens/samples are available for later referral by other researchers is an integral part of doing science. We have an expectation that the majority of field-based thesis projects will generate materials appropriate for cataloguing and storage.

It is recommended that students use UC Earth & Environment Catalogue accession forms as soon as field work begins. Initially, individuals will use their own field collection numbers which will then be converted to UC Catalogue numbers after Sacha makes a block allocation about 1 month prior to thesis submission.

Note, the samples being added to the UC catalogue are considered to be representative of the field area or those which are of special interest. Take advice from supervisor(s) and other staff members with respect to the selection of samples that fulfil that purpose. Because of significant pressure with respect to storage space, unlabelled/uncatalogued samples will not be stored in the basement collections area. 

Contact us

This growing and increasingly more valuable archive is curated by Sacha Baldwin with assistance from Chris Grimshaw.

External catalogues

PetLab is a NZ rock and geoanalytical database run by GNS with contributions from NZ university earth science departments. Rock information is generally available while access to analytical data requires a password.  In general we recommend all data from UC catalogued samples be entered into this growing and increasingly important national database.

The Fossil Record Electronic Database (FReD) holds fossil and biostratigraphic data for New Zealand and is currently run by staff at GNS. Students can register to access data contained within FReD, and should also submit any micro or macrofossil data collected during thesis research to enhance the database. See Chris Grimshaw about accessing this database.

Active catalogues

  • PetLab: For rock/mineral samples

Other catalogues

  • UCM Contains pre-2014  thesis/research microfossil collections
  • UCF  Contains pre-2014 thesis/research macrofossil collections
  • UCP Contains pre-2014 thesis/research plant fossil collections
  • Antarctic Collection
  • MASON Brian Mason mineral collection.
  • TEACHING Bulk samples for undergraduate courses only
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