ŘEDITEL GEOLOGICKÉHO ÚSTAVU AV ČR, v. v. i.

On Wednesday, August 3, 2022, the news of the start of a new volcanic eruption in the Meradalir area on the Icelandic Reykjanes Peninsula spread around the world. This happened less than a year after the end of the eruption of the neighbouring Fagradalsfjall volcano. After almost 800 years of volcanic inactivity on this peninsula, we are probably at the beginning of a new cycle of volcanic activity, which will most likely continue in the geologically near future. An international team of experts in volcanism is participating in the research of the new Meradalir volcano, a member of which is also a researcher at the Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences – Lukáš Krmíček.

At 1:14 AM CEST today (27 September 2022), American spacecraft Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) conducted the first successful planetary defense test in the history: it impacted asteroid Dimorphos (Greek for “two forms”), which orbits a larger asteroid Didymos (Greek for “twin”). Transfer of kinetic energy by an impact (i.e., collision-induced alteration of the asteroid trajectory) is one of the possible mechanisms of planetary defense. The unique experiment was contributed by Czech scientists and technical engineers of the Astronomical Institute Czech Acad Sci, Brno University of Technology and also by Tomáš Kohout of the Institute of Geology Czech Acad Sci. Further details are available, for instance, from the press releases of the Czech Academy of Sciences and NASA.

As of 7th June 2022, the President of the Czech Republic appointed Lukáš Krmíček, a researcher at the Institute of Geology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, at the age of 40, a full professor. In his scientific activities, Prof. Krmíček focuses on combined research of mineralogical, geochemical and physical-mechanical properties of igneous rocks. In addition to research activities, Prof. Krmíček also devotes himself to science-promotion activities. This year, Academia published his popular-science publication on volcanoes and volcanic processes.

The Main Miroslav Ivanov Prize was awarded to the popular-scientific book The Heart of Bohemian Karst – Srbsko Village and the Surrounding Landscape (published by Dokořán Publ. in 2021) at the International Book Fair “Svět knihy” in Prague on 9–12 June 2022. This prize for non-fiction books is awarded by the Club of Non-fiction Authors and the town of Jaroměř–Josefov (the birthplace of M. Ivanov). The book was contributed by authors from the Institute of Geology CAS Karel Žák, Václav Cílek, Stanislav Čermák and Jan Wagner. The Institute was also the place where the book was editorially completed and made ready for layout by K. Žák, V. Cílek with a contribution by photographer M. Majer. Congratulations!