International Student Meeting
From February 19th to February 23rd 2010 a group of German SGA student members organized an international Student Meeting at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg. Students of the University of Praha (Czech Republic) and Germany (LMU Munich, TU Freiberg, MLU Halle) took the chance to meet with the students of Halle University, to get to know each other and possibly to start stronger international relations. The meeting started on February 19th with the Ice-breaker-party where all the participants came together to get to know each other. While drinks and food were served an active discussion was forced about problems at the different universities, about the SGA, the last Biennial meeting in Townsville and about different other topics. Accommodation was organized at the Institute of Geosciences in Halle, so that the participants could stay together also over night which forced some more interesting talks between the different student groups. On Saturday, February 20th talks about the regional geology of Germany, Sachsen-Anhalt and Halle took place. Great interest was given on topics concerning the economic geology of Germany and the importance of historical mining in the vicinity of the town of Halle as well as on Ice-Age art in caves of Central Europe. Eight Scientists and Students from Martin-Luther-University Halle, the Geological Survey of Sachsen-Anhalt, the State Museum of Prehistory Sachsen-Anhalt and the CEZ Archeometry Mannheim presented their talks (see attachment).
Ian Lerche presenting facts and figures about plate tectonics
The geological topics of most of the presented talks have had their practically counterparts in the field trips that took place on Sunday, 21st and Monday, 22nd. So the attending students could choose on both days between two different field trips. So on Sunday the field trips on one hand led to the Barbarossa Cave, and on the other hand to the Sangerhausen Mining District, where the historical Kupferschiefer mine at Wettelrode was visited. The Barbarossa Cave in the Kyffhäuser Mountains was formed due to subrosion processes in mainly anhydritic rocks. Nowadays it is one of Germany’s famous touristic caves and the students were able to see the results of subrosion processes underground. The Cave was discovered [S.W.1] during exploration of Kupferschiefer. So during their guided tour the students were able to see parts of the cave that normal visitors were usually not allowed to see and even visit the underground exposures of the Kupferschiefer.
Mareike Decker guides the group through Barbarossa Cave
The second trip on Sunday led to the historical mining district of the Sangerhausen Syncline. Here at the former underground mine of Wettelrode the participating students got a guided tour. During their three hours underground historical mining sides as well as typical characteristics of the Kupferschiefer mineralization (shale and carbonate hosted ores as well as Rote Fäule occurrences) were visited.
Field trips on Monday, the last official day of the meeting, led the students to one of the active mines in Sachsen-Anhalt - the ESCO salt mine close to Bernburg (a small town in the NNW of Halle). Here the students attended a guided tour through the different mining sites and had the pleasure to enjoy a trip in the “cavern cars” through a big part of the salt mine. The second field trip on Monday led to the Harz Mountains. Here the Büchenberg mine where iron ores of Lahn-Dill-Type was visited by the attending students. Furthermore the open pit of the Felsenwerke was part of this field trip. Here Devonian carbonate rocks (reef limestones) are mined and so the participants of this field trip got an impression on concrete mining in Germany. Afterwards some more exposures of Devonian rocks, e.g. Devonian sediments as well as submarine volcanics, could give more information on the regional geology of the Harz Mountains.
Field trip regional geology, Harz Mountains, guided by Dr. Friedel of the Federal Geological Survey, Sachsen-Anhalt
Concluding the first international SGA student meeting organized by SGA student members of the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg was a great possibility for all participants to get to know each other and also to get an impression of some aspects of the scientific work which is taking place here at Martin-Luther-University. We like to thank the SGA as well as the “Fachschaft” of Geoscience of the Martin-Luther-University for their financial support to enable this meeting.
(Mareike Decker)
program for the international student meeting 2010
Halle_SGA_student_meeting_2010_programme.pdf
(10.5 KB) vom 10.02.2010