The architecturally attractive building of the Institute of Geosciences on Burgweg has a fully preserved interior, historical ceiling paintings and furnishings from the 1950s, which we present in guided tours. Geologists, mineralogists and geophysicists carry out modern research and teaching here, selected aspects of which we present in the corridors, teaching rooms and laboratories:
- The stratigraphic collection documents the long and varied history of our planet in contemporary witnesses through rocks, fossils and minerals. (Exhibition, guided tour)
- Sands are almost as specific as fingerprints: They mediate between erosion area and deposition area and reveal origin, transportation method and deposition area under the microscope. Their distribution on the earth's surface and underground is instructive, their composition economically important. Bring your vacation sand with you for a detailed determination! (Examination, demonstration)
- The fossil of the year 2024: Tambia spiralis is a mystery. Help with its interpretation. What makes it so significant to be awarded this title? (Demonstration)
- BROMACKER: Scientists from the Institute are involved in the "Bromacker" excavation campaign in the Thuringian Forest. Prehistoric dinosaurs lived there in a river landscape; they adapted to the increasingly continental conditions of the supercontinent Pangaea. Thousands of tiny markings on rock slabs make it possible to reconstruct the paleoenvironment and living conditions of the time in detail. Explore 290 million year old traces with us. (Demonstration)
- BASE: The oldest rocks do not reveal how life originated on our planet. However, a drilling campaign in South Africa shows how and where early microbial life spread in deltas and along beaches between volcanoes. How did it withstand the high UV radiation? Did it produce oxygen? Can we expect similar life forms on Mars? (Demonstration)
