The High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography Facility at The University of Texas at Austin (UTCT) is a national shared multi-user facility supported by the Instrumentation and Facilities Program of NSF's Earth Sciences (EAR) directorate. UTCT offers scientific researchers across the earth, biological and engineering sciences access to a completely nondestructive technique for visualizing features in the interior of opaque solid objects, and for obtaining digital information on their 3D geometries and properties.

Interested in scanning materials at our facility? See the Scanning FAQ or download the Scan Agreement Form.

Examples of High-Resolution X-ray CT

Garnet-kyanite schist, pseudocolored 3D reconstructions from CT scans.

News and Happenings

XRadia MicroXCT sample imagery now available!

UTCT recently expanded our imaging capabilities with the acquisition of an Xradia MicroXCT scanner. This scanner is capable of sub-micron resolution, thus effectively covering the smaller specimen size ranges (<1 cm) previously beyond our capabilities. Click here for sample imagery.

Selected Recent Publications
Liu, Y., Taylor, L.A., Sarbadhikari, A.B., Valley, J.W., Ushikubo, T., Spicuzza, M.J., Kita, N., Ketcham, R., Carlson, W., Shatsky, V., and Sobolev, N.V. (2009) Metasomatic origin of diamonds in the world's largest diamondiferous eclogite. Lithos, in press.

Pietsch, T.W., Johnson, J.W., and Arnold, R.J. (2009) A new genus and species of the shallow-water anglerfish family Tetrabrachiidae (Teleostei: Lophiiformes: Antennarioidei) from Australia and Indonesia. Copeia, 2009, 483-493.

Callier, V., Clack, J.A., and Ahlberg, P.E. (2009) Contrasting developmental trajectories in the earliest known tetrapod forelimbs. Science, 324, 364-367.

Cunningham, K.J., Sukop, M.C., Huang, H., Alvarez, P.F., Curran, H.A., Renken, R.A., and Dixon, J.F. (2009) Prominence of ichnologically influenced macroporosity in the karst Biscayne aquifer: stratiform “super-K” zones. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 121, 164-180.