Assoc. Prof. RNDr. Lukáš Krmíček, Ph.D. of the Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, v. v. i., together with his colleagues of the University of Potsdam (Universität Potsdam) presented new results of radioisotope dating of the Železná hůrka (Eisenbühl) volcano near Cheb at the Basalt 2017 conference. Based on the results of Ar/Ar step-heating of dark mica, the age of this volcano was shown to be "only" 400,000 years. Thus, the Železná hůrka represents the youngest Czech surface volcano. Volcanic activity in the vicinity of the Železná hůrka resulted in the formation of subsurface explosive maar-diatreme volcanic structures about 100 to 200 thousand years later. As yet, the "echoes" of volcanic activity in the Cheb area (similarly to the Yellowstone National Park in the USA) can be registered in the form of CO2 emanations accompanied by frequent earthquake swarms.

RNDr. Tomáš Hrstka PhD. was invited as a plenary speaker to an important international conference AMAM-ICAM 2017 (2nd International Conference on Applied Mineralogy & Advanced Materials - 13th International Conference on Applied Mineralogy)  in June 2017 to present the potential use of artificial intelligence and neural networks in automated mineralogy. Moreover, he also presented new findings based on the project Strategy AV21 related to the use of automated scanning electron microscopes in the study of individual dust particles and environmental monitoring..

Three authors affiliated to the Institute of Geology of the CAS participated in the publication of a paper in one of the Nature journals portfolio. The paper appeared in the issue of open-access journal Nature Communications published on 9th August 2017. The study was produced within the Czech Science Foundation project “Combined use of novel and traditional stable isotope systems in identifying source components and processes of moldavite formation”. This research is a joint activity of scientists of the Czech Geological Survey, Institute of Geology of the CAS and Nuclear Physics Institute of the CAS, together with colleagues from foreign institutions. Using a combination of chromium isotopes and triple oxygen isotopes it was documented that one of types of impact glasses of the Zhamanshin impact structure in Kazakhstan contains a minor proportion of matter from the impactor. The impactor was identified to be a carbonaceous chondrite of a less common type. Moreover, the oxygen isotope data enabled to study the oxygen isotope exchange between the glass droplets and atmospheric oxygen. No admixture of meteorite matter and no exchange with atmospheric oxygen was evidenced for the Czech tektites –  moldavites. This combination of analytical approaches has been applied on impact-related glasses for the first time.

Study of the Pod Hradem Cave (Moravian Karst) yielded new information about environmental conditions in the Moravian Karst during the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition. The Pod Hradem Cave is the first archaeological cave site in the Czech Republic with such sedimentary and archaeological record from 25,000 – 45,000 years BP. New excavations confirm infrequent human visitation, and the diversity of lithic raw material suggests long-distance imports and ephemeral visits by highly mobile populations. The research was published in the Journal of Human Evolution on March 29, 2017.