The 37th International Geological Congress in Busan (Korean Republic) announced the decision of the Executive Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences (under UNESCO; IUGS) of 21 February 2024. This decision included the Račiška pečina Cave (Matarsko podolje, SW Slovenia) in the IUGS Geoheritage Sites list. Its justification stated: multidisciplinary record of landscape and palaeoenvironmental change within the last 3.4 million years, including geomagnetic field variations in the Pliocene and Pleistocene including the Matuyama/Brunhes transition. The cave features a unique flowstone section with clays containing abundant fauna of small and large vertebrates and gastropods. The long-lasting research, conducted from 2004, employed a combination of geomorphological methods with numerical radiometric dating (U-Th, U-Pb, 14C), correlative stratigraphy based on fossil remains, and stable isotope (O, C) study which contributed to palaeoenvironmental interpretations. This result is credited to an international team of scientists from Slovenia (ZRC SAZU Karst Research Institute, Postojna), Czechia (Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, v. v. i., Department of Zoology of the Faculty of Science of Charles University, Prague, National Museum in Prague) and Poland (Institute of Geological Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań). For references to some papers resulting from this research click here and here.

Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences has recently become a test centre for the development of hi-tech sensors used for high-precision grinding and polishing of samples selected for subsequent microscopic analyses.  Several staff members of the Institute were trained by Finnish specialists in operating the Polishing Wizard device, developed at the University of Turku. The device also allows for a potential automation of these processes, considering the needs of both science and industry. Testing is planned as a part of the Strategy AV21 Programme – Dynamic Planet Earth, specifically the project “Innovative methods for the study of geological processes and environmental monitoring” co-ordinated by Tomáš Hrstka. 

At the end of the Triassic period (201 million years ago), the Earth's climate changed drastically with massive occurrence of volcanic eruptions. This period marked a significant change in the species composition of plants. A new study published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, co-authored by Tomáš Navrátil and Jan Rohovec of the Department of Environmental Geochemistry, explains geological conditions leading to the changes in the biota. By combining paleoecological and geochemical approaches, we have gained insight into a complex and long-term sequence of events in which global warming of the paleoclimate and an increase in the concentration of toxic metal mercury, released into the atmosphere during volcanic eruptions, acted together as stressors. As a result, trees were replaced by ferns during the 1.3 million-year extinction interval.

Between 2021 and 2023, the Reykjanes Peninsula experienced three eruptions within the Fagradalsfjall volcanic system. Currently, the volcanic activity has shifted to the more western Svartsengi system. Volcanologist Lukáš Krmíček, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Iceland, collected liquid lava from the current Icelandic eruption. The research will help us in solving the question as to whether and in which aspects are the Fagradalsfjall and Svartsengi volcanic systems interconnected. Those interested in the latest Icelandic volcanoes can find additional information in the book “The world of volcanoes up close”.