This laboratory is set up for the counting and identification of different living and fossil microorganisms. The optical laboratory, along with the sedimentology and micropaleontology laboratory, was one of the first laboratories founded in the department. As such, it has a long history of paleostudies and living phytoplankton and zooplankton studies, and has an extensive collection of taxonomic reference books and reprints. The laboratory contains 4 petrographic microscopes for coccolithophore and pollen analysis; 5 microscopes with Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) for siliceous microfossil analysis; 5 digital cameras and 1 video camera for microscopes; 5 binocular microscopes and 1 digital camera for foraminifera and sand analysis. This laboratory is now improved with an Hitachi Tabletop Scanning Electron microscope (SEM) equipped with a Bruker Quantax 75 EDS.