Field Trips
2024 Slovakia
From August 11th to 17th, a group of 12 enthusiastic students from the SGA Student Chapter Erlangen, ranging from first-year students to PhD candidates, embarked on a geological field trip to Slovakia. Our journey was filled with enriching experiences, from exploring historic and active mines to forging new friendships with fellow geology students.
Our adventure began in the city of Bratislava, where we were warmly welcomed by local geology students from the University of Bratislava. The evening kicked off with a delightful meet-and-greet dinner in the heart of the Old Town.
The next three days took us deep into Slovakia’s mining history as we ventured to the Banská Štiavnica region. We visited perlite and bentonite operations, where we learned about the extraction and processing of these industrial minerals. The highlight of the whole week was undoubtedly the visit of the active underground Rozália Gold Mine. Descending into the depths, we experienced firsthand the tough conditions under which the miners work. The visit provided us with many insights on the formation of the epithermal gold deposit, enriching our knowledge of geological processes, mining and exploration techniques.
Our journey continued with a visit to the historical Coin Museum in Kremnica and the exploration of the active magnesite mine SWZ in Jelšava. Here, we learned about the mining and use of magnesite, a key mineral for various industrial applications. We also enjoyed the beautiful nature and geology of the Lower Tatra Mountains before we headed back to Germany. We made a cultural stop in the picturesque city of Prague. Here, we met with the SGA student chapter at the Charles University, visited the Natural History Museum together and built connections that will last well beyond this field trip.
This field trip, though not the only event, has really been the highlight of this year’s activity of our student chapter in Erlangen. With many new members who joined our chapter we look forward to many future events and field trips already in the making. We warmly thank Peter Kodera and Diego Delgado from the University of Bratislava, whose guidance and organization ensured a smooth field trip for all. Our gratitude also goes out to the Slovakian students and locals for their warm hospitality, making this excursion a truly memorable one.
2023 Kropfmühl
Our chapter’s inaugural field trip was an excursion to the Kropfmühl graphite mine in the southern Bohemian Massif. Thirteen eager students embarked on an immersive journey, exploring the underground workings and production shafts that have been operational since 1870. The fascinating, highly-metamorphic paragenesis comprised dark, graphite-bearing garnet- gneisses, luminous quartzitic gneisses, quartzitic insertions, amphibolite layers, calc-silicate marbles (skarns), and calcsilicate formations. For many it was the first time to go underground and a very memorable experience to see the rock formations at depth. Back on the surface, the students were able to see how the graphite is prepared and processed to be eventually turned into graphite products such as expandable graphite or dispersions for metallurgy. Overall, it was a very exciting first field trip of our SGA student chapter!
