Over the years the Department has developed the basic infrastructure and laboratories for imparting education to students as well as for faculty research. The Department maintains well equipped geological, hydrogeological and geophysical instrumentation laboratories, Geological Museum, educational tools including projection and reprographic facilities, multimedia projectors, well furnished classrooms, seminar hall for graduate students, library, computational laboratories and e-Lab etc. These details are listed on the Department's website. Examples of these equipment's and instruments are: Polarizing Microscopes, Scanning Microscope, XRF, XRD, Microprobe, GIS system, Absolute Gravity meter, Proton Precession Magnetometer, Broadband Seismometers, etc. The Library of the Department maintains a good collection of both Topographical and Geological Maps for greater part of Quadrangles in the Kingdom. The Department also has the basic infrastructure arrangement for Summer Field Training of the students.

A- LABORATORY/RESEARCH FACILITIES

1. Petrographic Preparation Laboratory: equipped with Rock Cutting Machines, Polishing and Thin-section preparation.
2. Petrologic research microscopes with attached photographic facilities.
3. GIS Laboratory with a server, 5 terminals, one A0 scanner, one A0 plotter, and 3 color laser printers.
4. Geophysical exploration equipments, including 24-channel Seismometer, Magnetometer, Gravimeter, Resistivitymeter and Ground Penetrating Radar.
5. Borehole logging and Video Imaging Systems.
6. Petroleum Geology Laboratory.
7. Surveying equipments, which include three electronic total station units, Hand GPS – 20 numbers, Theodolites - 2 numbers.
8. Computer Laboratory for processing and interpretation of geological, geophysical and hydrogeological data.

B- TEACHING CLASSROOMS

   While The Department of Geology and Geophysics shares lecture halls with other College Programs within the College of Science, it also contains many laboratories, that are used as lecture classrooms and they are located in the Department. The capacity of the lecture classrooms varies from 30 to 40 students per classroom. Most of these classrooms are equipped with audiovisual facilities as follows:

C- FIELD ACTIVITIES

The field experience in the Geology and Geophysics Programs is achieved through short field trips (up to three days) and one long field training course (35 days). The field activities supervision staff  help in planning and scheduling activities for the students, provide students with material support (geophysical tools, maps, air photos, software), moral support ( advices , teaching, knowledge , experience, encouragement,  etc), and assessment of performance, practices, activities and aptitude. The Students are thoroughly prepared, through briefings and descriptive material, for participation in the field activities through the following procedures:

1. Make an announcement to the students to join the field trip before at least the mid of the 2nd semester.
2. Study the students’ applications and their academic applicability to join the trip.
3. Offer lectures to explain the plan and targets of the field trip and the students’ duties and responsibilities.
4. Offer lectures on safety aids.
5. Distribute notices about the requirements the field (e.g. camp gear, clothing, shoes, drafting supplies, etc.).
6. Distribute notices about safety in the field and risks.
7. Arrange follow up meetings and classes with staff and students at least one week before the beginning of the field trip to allow the students to reflect on, and explore, the knowledge vistas of their field experience.

The Department arranges a summer field training camp for students in areas of geological interest within the Kingdom where the students are trained on geological and topographic mapping techniques, to study geologic relationships with emphasis on stratigraphic interpretations of rocks. The students are trained to identify, describe, classify and interpret the different faunal contents and different geological structures.

The students are also trained, In the field, on how to carry out different geophysical surveys including the seismic (refraction and reflection), gravity, magnetic, electrical, and electromagnetic methods.  Training is also imparted to students on geophysical data analysis and their geologic interpretation. For effective training purposes, the students are grouped and guided by the Department's faculty and staff. Students are required to prepare written field reports upon completion of field training for evaluation.

D- PROVISION OF FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT

Each year King Saud University Council assigns a budget for the provision of equipment's to the College of Science and consequently the Dean of the College divides the received amount equally among the College departments and requests from the chairmen of the departments to submit their needs for equipment's in relation to the available budget. The Equipment and Laboratory Committee in the Department submits to the Chairman a list of the required equipment's in accordance with the priorities agreed upon by the Committee in the light of the questionnaire collected from the Department's faculty members.

The budget allocated for the Geological and Geophysical Programs depends on the available budget at the University to be distributed equally among the different departments, and not on the needs of the specific program. However, the program manager could ask for more funds, if he has a good specific reason, and within the availability of more funds in the University, this request could be met.

The Equipment and Laboratory Committee in the Department is responsible for setting the financial planning and management, and formulating the evaluation scheme, in coordination with the Chairman of the Department and with the previous the Chairman, to reach practical and realistic conclusions.