Home to Dr. Christa Brosseau's chemistry laboratory, where artifacts found on Oak Island are examined under a scanning electron microscope capable of magnifying samples up to 200,000 times to determine their chemical composition and age.
About This Site
Saint Mary's University is a public university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, founded in 1802 and one of the oldest universities in Canada. The university's chemistry laboratory, directed by Dr. Christa Brosseau, operates a scanning electron microscope capable of magnifying samples up to 200,000 times their actual size and identifying their precise chemical composition through energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Dr. Brosseau and her colleague Dr. Xiang Yang have examined numerous artifacts and material samples from Oak Island, providing critical analysis of metal composition, mineral content, and manufacturing techniques that help determine the age and origin of recovered objects. The laboratory has become one of the most important off-island scientific resources in the investigation.
Connection to Oak Island
Saint Mary's University has been involved in the Oak Island investigation since the earliest seasons. In Season 1, Alex Lagina brought coconut fibre samples from Smith's Cove to the university, where Dr. Tanya Koslowski examined them under a scanning electron microscope at 650x magnification and confirmed the material was genuine coconut fibre. Subsequent carbon dating placed the fibre between 1260 and 1400 A.D., nearly four centuries before the Money Pit's discovery.
In Season 9, Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, and Dan Henskee visited Dr. Brosseau and Dr. Yang to examine the metal from Borehole D-2 under the scanning electron microscope. Dr. Yang identified the absence of manganese, placing the material before the 1840s, and discovered a particle that was 65 percent gold, 26 percent copper, and 5 percent silver. Dr. Brosseau identified this composition as rose gold, a material used since the Middle Ages. In Season 10, Peter Fornetti, Charles Barkhouse, and Emma Culligan brought the iron piece from the Lot 26 well and bush scythes for analysis; Dr. Brosseau confirmed both pre-dated 1840 based on the absence of manganese. In Season 11, Charles and Jack Begley brought hair found embedded in cement-like rock from beneath a Nolan's Cross boulder to Dr. Brosseau and Dr. Yang for examination under the scanning electron microscope.
Fieldwork Notes
Multiple visits across Seasons 1 through 13. Key analyses include: coconut fibre confirmation (S01E02), D-2 metal composition revealing rose gold (S09E02-03), bush scythe and well iron dating (S10E13), and hair sample examination from Nolan's Cross boulder (S11E24). Dr. Christa Brosseau and Dr. Xiang Yang conduct scanning electron microscopy and chemical composition analysis at the university's chemistry laboratory.
