Alpenseminar by Georg Löwe On the 14h of  May we had a very interesting talk by Georg Löwe on the evolution of the Austroalpine Basement. This talk particularly particularly focused on Metamorphism, Geochronology and the Geodynamics of these basement sequences. These basement sequences outcrop at certain locations, which is highlighted on the figure below: Overview of Austroalpine Basement units, after  Thöni, 2006 In general, the Austroalpine Basement Units comprises a  Nappe pile that is composed of several different sequences. This includes: pre-Variscan sediments and intrusions of various ages, including pre -Variscan, Permo-Triassic and Tertiary magmatism. These units were exposed to various metamorphic events during the Variscan times, Permo-Triassic and during the Eo-Alpine orogeny. These are summarised on the following diagrams:   Various metamorphic conditions experienced by the Austro-Alpine sequences, after  Schuster et al., 2001

Alpenseminar and Blog post by Thomas Biehl On the 14th of May we had a presentation about really impressive and destructive landslides in the Alps. These landslides are generally related to large earthquakes and there are few examples that we may consider here: 1. Dobratsch - Carinthia In 1348 a destructive earthquake occurred near the town of Villach on the Austrian/Italian border. This earthquake resulted in several landslides along the 2166 m high Dobratsch massif, which lies atop the Periadriatic Lineament. Overview of the Dobratsch landslides, after  Lenhardt, 2007   The largest of these landslides was known as the "Rote Wand". This caused the destruction of a dam and the flooding of the whole Gail River Valley. Overview of the regional structure of the Dobratsch Mountains, after Stefan et al., 2004 2. Köfelsberg - Tirol Rapid Alpine deglaciation during the Holocene, approximately 9000 BC, resulted a massive landslide near th

Alpenseminar by Ole Schramme   On the 27th of April we had a presentation on the very impressive Brenner Base tunneling project through the Alp Mountains. This project involves the construction of a railway tunnel connecting Innsbruck (Austria) with Franzensfeste (Italy). This forms an important economic transport route linking northern Europe to the Medditeranean. When completed, this will be the longest tunnel in the world, reaching a total length of 53 km. The geology across the profile looks as follows: Geological overview of the tunnel route, after  Bradner et al., 2008 Project planning began in 1978 and is expected to be completed in 2025. The complicated geological makes this a difficult engineering project. From 2001-2005 an extensive geolgical, hydrogeological and geophysical investigation took place. These various geo-technical surveys have now allowed for a very precise view of the Alpine geology expected to be transected by this tunnel:

Every week the group will be selling cakes and tea during the Dondertag Geowissenschaftliche Kolloquium. Last week we even had special cake from Georgia! So, do come and check out the interesting Kolloquium  presentations, and try out the great Kuchen! Herr Jan Eric Timm chatting to the visitors of the weekly Kolloquium at the Burgweg Campus

Alpenseminar by Madeline Richter On the 11th of  May we had a great talk by Frau Richter on the formation and evolution of the Austroalpine Nappes. These particularly include the Silvretta, Koralpe, Ötzal and Drauzug units, which is highlighted on the figure below: The relative location of the Austroalpine Nappes units, as highlighted above, after Frisch and Gawlick, 2003 Very soon it became clear that many developed a pain in their heads at these different names, however this pain soon subsided when we learnt that there is still much controvesy regarding how these various units are linked across different political and language boundaries. This pain had completely vanished when Frau Richter then introduced us to a more regional overview for better understanding, where Bavaric is the oldest and Juvavic is the youngest:   Overview of the major Nappes included within the Northern Calcareous Alps  Frisch and Gawlick, 2003   The depositional environments as m

Just a preview of what we'll be seeing during our trip, here's some panoramic photos taken by Tim Knörrich  during the 2015 Alpine excursion:

Alpenseminar by Benjamin Schmitz On the 27th of April we had a presentation on the active tectonics across the Alps by Benjamin Schmitz . To begin, we considered the tectonic setting across the Eastern Mediterranean by looking at the most recent Paleogeographic reconstruction of the Alpine orogeny. Recent Paleogeographic setting of the Alpine orogeny, after  Handy et al., 2015 The effect of the orogenesis linked to the indentation of the Adriatic Plate (brown on the above figure) into the European Plate (blue on the above figure) resulted in the formation of several faults and collisional zones. We may now consider: What tectonic effect remains? To better elaborate on this question, we may now consider the GPS velocities across Europe, Asia and North Africa, which is further associated to Nubia-Eurasia-Convergence: GPS-measured relative plate motions between the African and European/Eurasian Plates, after  Facenna et al., 2014 Importantly, this

Alpenseminar by Taufeeq Dhansay The formation of the Alpine Mountains can be broadly defined by the convergent movement of several continental plates and the associated opening and closing of oceanic basins. The science of Paleogeography aims to travel back in deep time and figure out how these different plates would have moved, and ultimately collided to form these magnificent mountains.  The protagonists Firstly, we should identify the main players (i.e. plates) in this story. This includes the larger African/Nubian and European plates, and the smaller Adriatic/Apulian and Iberian Plates. Below is a figure of the present-day alps and how its underlying tectonic units fit together: Broad overview of the major plates associated with the Alpine Orogeny, after  Handy et al., 2010 Importantly, zones between these plates (i.e. demarcated by darker colours on the above map) represent regions that, in particular, experienced varying levels of tectonism and/metamorp

This is our seminar programme in preparation for the AlpenRocks 2017 Große Exkursion. If you're in Jena, please do come and join us! Seminars are every Thurs at 10h15 for the Summer Semester:

This year, the annual Große Exkursion (Big Excursion) of the Institut für Geowissenschaften (Institute for Geosciences) der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena will undertake a trip focusing on structure and tectonics across the Alps. This will be led by Prof. Dr.  Kamil Ustaszewski , the head of Structural Geology at the  Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena . This trip will involve two transects across the Central and Eastern portion of the Alpine Mountains over a two-week period during Aug-Sept. Spectacular landscape of Marlomada in the Alps of  Italy The Alps represent a collisional orogen formed broadly during the convergence of the European and Adriatic continents. This process can be traced back as early as 250 million years ago. During this time Europe, North America and Africa were situated very close to each other in what was known as the Supercontinent Pangea. Underlying plate tectonic forces driven by deep convection of the Earth’s Mantle resulted in this superco