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PRESENTATION
The activities of the Geomagnetism
and Exploration Department are highly interdisciplinary, this explains
the different academic formation of the research staff, the diverse
research lines that we follow and the close relationships that we have
with other working groups dedicated to the Earth Science studies.
This Department began with the union of two working groups each one
with a different development story: "Paleomagnetism and Nuclear
Geophysics" and "Geomagnetism". Later other groups dedicated
to Geophysics Exploration joined and new interest research goals raised
inside the Department, since new groups were formed: Geochemistry and
Paleoenvironmental Studies.
The main research disciplines are: Geophysics Exploration, Geomagnetism,
Geochemistry, Paleomagnetism, Tectonophysics, Paleoenvironmental and
Quaternary studies, Satellite Geodesy and remote sensing techniques.
Several of the research lines outstand for dealing with frontier topics,
scientific debate or their impact in the society. For instance, one
of these research lines of a particular importance is the impact crater
of Chixchulub, near the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, associated to
the big extinction in the biosphere occurred in this time.
Among the infrastructure of the Department it outstand the Magnetic
Observatory of Teoloyucan, working since 1914 and the Laboratory of
Paleomagnetism, the first one in Mexico and Latin America. There are
also highlighted the Laboratory of Heavy Isotopes, fundamental part
of the LUGIS (University Laboratory of Isotopic Geochemistry, run jointly
with the Geological Institute), and the ICP Laboratory for trace and
ultra-trace elements. Both laboratories with the most modern equipments
for mass spectrometry.
Among the most recently developed infrastructure there are the Digital
Cartography Laboratory (Cardi) that runs nets of GPS stations in active
volcanoes and other interesting zones with geologic risk, as well as
the Paleolimnology Laboratory, main part of the paleoenvironmetal and
Quaternary studies, which one of their main objectives is to document
the global climatic change during the recent past
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