
The Institute of Environmental Geology and Geoengineering (IGAG) was born in 2001 from the merger of five previous institutes operating in the fields of geology, engineering, chemistry and geochemistry, thus achieving the integration of skills typical of the Earth sciences, geotechnical and mining engineering and environmental chemistry.
Thanks to the investment that the institute has made in technological innovation and the development of innovative analytical and experimental methods, the IGAG laboratories constitute an important infrastructural asset that manages to attract researchers from Italian and foreign research institutions.
The 34 analytical, experimental and field laboratories put multidisciplinary skills into a network, which carries out experimentation and in-depth activities as part of the activities envisaged by the research topic lines.
The network of IGAG laboratories constitutes an important endowment for the Institute’s researchers, who exploit their technological skills and abilities in the context of the projects they are involved in, but also for the external scientific and technical community, for which it represents a point of fundamental contact with the skills of IGAG researchers.
The structure supports research based on geosciences applied to the various fields of investigation summarized in the institute’s thematic lines and third mission activities.
Montelibretti Unit
Geoarchaeology and Archaeometry
The GeoArc Laboratory for Geoarchaeology and Archaeometry include all technical and scientific skills, also analytical instrumentations, of IGAG Department of the Earth Science and
Laboratory for the measuraments of Environmental Radioactivity
Main activities of the laboratory cover radiochemical characterization of soils, rocks and water. Analyses are perfomed by Ametek Ortec alfa-spectrometry and high resolution gamma-
Chemical analysis of geomaterials Laboratory
Development of innovative analytical methodologies; chemical speciation of heavy metals on environmental matrices; support for the characterization of materials such as: soils, min
Chemical analysis of rocks and fibrous materials Laboratory
Mineralogical analysis and determination of the elemental chemical composition of soils, sediments, minerals and industrial products using X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence and
GEALAB – geophysics applied to the environmental geology, the heritage and the earthquake engineering lab
GeALab is the place where CNR IGAG Researchers work for the following activities: Local seismic hazard assessment, even in the case of sites where application of non-invasive metho
Laboratory of precious metals
The laboratory of precious metals, represents an external section of the hydrometallurgy laboratory. It is used for the extraction and purification of precious metals (gold and sil
Stable Isotope
The Stable Isotope Laboratory is part of the larger Environmental Geochemistry Laboratory. The available equipment allows chemical analysis and isotopic abundance measurements of C
GIS Laboratory
The GIS Laboratory provides an environment where IGAG’s researchers work to advance knowledge in the application of geospatial technologies.
Optical and electronic microscopy and morphological analysis Laboratory
Morphological and compositional analysis of materials such as rocks, minerals and archaeological finds. Characterization of airborne and materials containing asbestos of natural an
Mineralurgy and chemical-physical treatment of materials Laboratory
Preparation of samples for qualitative and quantitative analysis and mining treatments. Hard, medium-hard, soft, elastic, fragile and fibrous materials are treated to obtain granul
Porosimetry and granulometry Laboratory
Determination of porosity, pore size and volumetric distribution, particle size distribution, bulk density and specific surface area of porous solids using porosimeters. Measuremen
Thin Sections
The new IGAG Thin Sections Laboratory in Montelibretti was launched in 2016. The lab is dedicated to the preparation of thin sections for microscopic studies of samples from geolog
Electrochemistry Lab
Determination of the experimental parameters for the deposition of elements contained in process solutions and into the industrial and mining tailings and waste water, aimed at the
Hydrometallurgy Lab
The activity is aimed to valorize primary and secondary raw materials, through the application of hydrometallurgical processes to geo-resources at low content, for the recovery of