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.