CRISP houses an extraordinary collection of soil thin sections for microscopic observations.

It is a collection of more than 2550 thin sections of representative soils from over 40 countries throughout the world, donated by prof. E.A. Fitzpatrick to prof. Fabio Terrible, his former student and now director of the newborn research Centre CRISP.

The above-mentioned collection represents the witness and the legacy of the brilliant research of prof. E. A. FitzPatrick; one of the founding fathers of soil micromorphology. In his long and frenetic activity as a professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Science of the University of Aberdeen (UK), he has traveled constantly in many parts of the world by creating a huge and interesting collection of soils from which were obtained thin sections. These are referred to soils of particular importance from Alaska, Australia, Belgium, Belize, Borneo, Brazil, Canada, China, Malaysia, England, France, Gambia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malawi, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Guinea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Spain, Sudan, Svalbard, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, USA, Wales, Zambia.

CRISP Centre, with the support of the University of Naples and the Library of the University of Aberdeen is about to start a project with the aim of contributing to the creation – at the CRISP – of a soil microscopy laboratory – open to international researchers and soil experts – where it is possible the observation and analysis of the rich collection of the world’s soils seen under a microscope, integrated with the study of data and digital documents (about 40 PhD theses and Master) by which the collection will be accompanied.