The Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution of Peking University (OBCE), a key Laboratory under the Ministry of Education, was built on the basis of the former Central Research Laboratory of Geology Department of Peking University. In 2002, it was authorized to establish. The OBCE Laboratory relies on four institutes of the former Geology Department, Peking University; namely, the Continental Dynamics and Resource Engineering Institute, Institute of Geochemistry, Institute of Mineralogy, Petrology and Mineral Deposits, as well as the Institute of Prehistoric Life and Environment, which correspond the structural geology, geochemistry, mineralogy, petrology and mineral deposits geology as well as paleontology and stratigraphy respectively. The OBCE Laboratory's permanent research personnel consist of the research & teaching faculty and the technical support personnel of the former Geology Department, Peking University. Meanwhile, the OBCE Laboratory is also the solid teaching & research platform for School of Earth and Space Sciences, College of Environmental Sciences, School of Archaeology and Museology and other related schools & departments of Peking University.

The OBCE Laboratory's orientation and development goal: The OBEC Laboratory, relying on the School of Earth and Space Sciences of Peking university, following the international research frontier of orogenic belt and crustal evolution upon China's typical orogenic belt, with field laboratory as research base, large advanced laboratory equipment as technical support and orogenic belt and crustal evolution as major research, will give priority to fundamental researches and the study of their corresponding applications; it will grow into an open research, talent training and academic exchange center in the field of Solid Earth Sciences, a center that attracts international attention within 5-8 years (established in 2002).

The purpose of OBCE Laboratory: Give full play to disciplinary advantage, explore innovative area and serve the country.

At present, the OBCE Laboratory boasts of more than 60 permanent personnel, 53 of which are researchers (including 35 professors and 18 associate professors) and 10 are technical support personnel. The OBCE Laboratory covers a usable area of 3,920 square meters with the total value of its equipment reaching more than RMB 40 million.

In recent years, OBCE Laboratory has conducted a series of research work over Orogen Geology, the research priorities include: (1) metamorphism and evolution of orogenic belts; (2) magma evolution in orogenic belt and mineralization; (3) structural dynamics of orogenic belt and continental deformation; (4) high pressure & high temperature research in plutonic process; (5) study of organic evolution and major geological events. The study priorities are the development goals of the laboratory and the supporting platform is the basis to realize such goals. Currently, the supporting platforms of the laboratory include: (1) the material composition analysis and testing system; (2) the material structure analysis and testing system; (3) the test system of geochronology; (4) the experimental simulation system for plutonic process.

(1) Material composition analysis and testing system

The system consists of ARL ADVANT'XP+, JEOL JXA8100, MC-ICPMS and VG AXIOM as well as other analytical and measuring instruments, which can meet the requirement of material composition analysis, radioactive isotope and in-situ microarea microconstituent measuring etc. The ARL ADVANT'XP+ is a "Phase I Construction Project under Project 985". In 2004 installation and trial run was completed, and condition experiment was subsequently carried out; the 4GN rhodium end window X-ray tube can provide wide-range X-ray radiation and analyze 83 elements; the high-speed Morie fringe goniometer boasts of full microprocessor control, whose velocity ratio of rotation is four times faster than average goniometers. JEOL JXA8100 functions as the microanalyzer of secondary electron image, reflected electron image, X-ray image, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, line analysis and surface analysis; the primary indicators are image resolution ratio 6 nm for secondary electron image, 0.5 atomic number of resolution for reflected electron image; the element analytical range is B5-U92 and the limit of elementary analysis is 0.05wt％. The performance indicators of the Agilent7500ce/cs are as follows: Li ≥ 30Mcps/ppm, Y≥80 Mcps/ppm and Tl≥40 Mcps/ppm in sensitivity of conventional analysis; Y≥500 Mcps/ppm in super high sensitivity. In the blind sample test of No.GeoPT-28 organized by IAG in 2011, our laboratory showed superior analytical level of the 88 participating labs over the world (listed in the Top 28 labs with z>3 and sample quantity less than two); and according to the blind sample analytical result of GEPT-35A in 2014, OBCE Laboratory is listed within the Top 37 among the 113 similar labs over the world (with z>3 and sample quantity less than three). MC-ICPMS and VG AXIOM are the "Key Construction Projects under Project 211" and the instruments have been officially accepted after inspection, and put into use in May, 2001. The instrument is a mass spectrometer with dual focus of both electric field and magnetic field. It's equipped with PMP and nine Faraday collector cups, thus can realize both single and multiple reception; the single reception function can be used for trace and ultra-trace element analysis while the multiple reception used in the measuring of high-precision isotope composition with resolution 400-10000RP (10% valley), sensitivity R=400In 1000Mcps/ppm, detection limit Be<1ppt, Mn<0.5ppt, Fe<1ppt and isotope ratio: 0.002% in degree of precision and accuracy grade. OBCE Laboratory also boasts of four superclean labs with different classes, and the total area comes up to 160㎡.

(2) Material structure analysis and testing system

It is a relatively complete material structure analysis testing system. Besides the infrared spectrophotometer, X-ray diffractometer and other conventional instruments, the system also has EBSD-CL-EDS scanning electron microscope as well as other neotype kits and equipment. The infrared spectrophotometer is a PE983G type infrared spectrophotometer imported from the UK in 1984, featured by small dosage of sample; it is most suitable to conduct qualitative determination of clay minerals and appraise multiple-mineral samples, particularly to carry out multiphase analysis and qualitative identification of minerals. the wave-number range of the instrument is 180-5000 cm-1 with a degree of precision 0.1%. The X-ray diffractometer is the most long-standing experimental facilities of our laboratory with ideal functioning. Its advantages include convenient specimen preparation, small dosage of sample and damage-free analysis etc., the scanning radius is 180-200 with 3KW X-ray source. The EBSD-CL-EDS scanning electron microscope was installed and debugged in March 2011. The laser Raman spectrometer RM-1000 boasts of a resolution 1-2cm-1, stray light inhibition 10-14, wavelength precision plus-minus 0.5cm-1, repeatability plus-minus 0.2cm-1, spectral range 400nm-1050nm, and the time of laser from the 50-time magnified microscopic len is approx. 1μm. The instrument has ideal confocal characteristics, easy to operate, speedy in testing; in addition, it has great sensitivity, causing no damage to sample in testing. It is widely used to analyze the microarea, phase and structure of samples from disciplines of physics, chemistry, geology and so on.

(3) Test system of geochronology

The system is scheduled to set up a small number of experimental methods such as fission track, U-Pb, K-Ar and Ar-Ar; for now it only has fission track, laser ablation-inductive coupling plasma mass spectrometry, conventional K-Ar and Ar-Ar dating system (VG RGA10) and full-automatic full-timescale high precision and high sensitive laser40Ar/39 dating system (VG 5400). Fission track was purchased within Project 211 budget, installed and debugged in November 2005; its positioning accuracy at X and Y axis is ±2 μm, and ± 0.2 μm at Z axis. The laser ablation-inductive coupling plasma mass spectrometry (or the Agilent7500ce/cs, used in the same apparatus as the material composition analysis and testing system) was purchased in 2005, with a laser abrading sample-moltening system, the COMPexPro 102 Excimer Laser, developed by the US Coherent company. The indicators of the laser abrading device as follows: operating wavelength 193 nm, light spot size on sample 4-160μm, and the energy stability 1%. It is used for U-Pb age-dating of zircon. The conventional K-Ar dating system (VG RGA10), purchased by the laboratory in 1986, is one of the best available domestic K-Ar testing system in its field, and one of the few K-Ar dating systems in use in China now; it can be used to test upon the geological samples aged older than one million years ago. The constant temperature step warming40Ar/39Ar dating system (VG RGA10) was the first ultrahigh vacuum high-precision thermostatic melting furnace and gas purification & extraction system developed in China based on an old mass spectrometer, which made the constant temperature step warming40Ar/39Ar dating and full-automatic full-timescale high precision laser40Ar/39Ar dating system (VG 5400) and other chronology measuring instrument come true. It can be used to carry out correlational study on conventional chronology.

(4) Experimental simulation system for plutonic process

The main research directions of the lab consist of new materials synthesis under high pressure and high temperature, partial melting of terrestrial matter, phase transition under high pressure and high temperature, in-situ measurement under high pressure, high-pressure physical properties of organic hydrocarbon, interaction of fluid and rock minerals, rock-mineral rheology, internal components and structure evolution of the Earth and planets etc.

The major equipment consists of the US imported non-end loaded piston-cylinder apparatus and the end loaded piston-cylinder apparatus, which was jointly developed by the lab and the Changsha Juntian Lab Equipments Co., Ltd. The lab has extensive partnerships with many an internationally famous HTHP laboratory such as the Geophysical Laboratory Carnegie Institution of Washington, Institute of Earth Sciences of the Australian National University, Mineral Physics Institute - Stony Brook University and the Institute for Study of the Earth's Interior, Okayama University, to name a few.

The OBCE Laboratory published more than 600 papers in Chinese from 2002 to 2005. In 2002, the figure is 136, and in 2005, it is approx. 200, taking on an ever-rising trend year after year. It has published over 290 SCI papers, 184 of which are published as the first author. The number increased from 44 (33 papers published as the first author) in 2002 to 65 (46) in 2003, 80 (58) in 2004; by the current incomplete record, the figure is 70 (46) in 2005. The total number is now over 2.5 times than that of the time when the laboratory was not built (In 2001, only 31 SCI papers were published and 25 of which were published as the first author). The quality of papers has substantially improved. The number of papers published in world first-class publications grows rapidly, which is now as close to half that of the SCI papers. Besides, international top-level journal articles multiply and achievements tend towards original innovation. The number of papers related to "OBCE" has been on the rise year after year: the number published in China increased from 5 in 2002 to 14 in 2003, 56 in 2004 and 52 (incomplete statistics) in 2005; the number of SCI papers rose from 2 in 2002 to 10 in 2003, 17 in 2004 and 37 (incomplete statistics) in 2005.

In 2002-2005, the OBCE Laboratory has attracted 11 domestic and international visiting researchers and presided over six academic conferences at home and abroad, establishing sound cooperative relationship with over 20 globally renowned universities and scientific research institutions.