Geology

As the Earth Sciences discipline that involves both natural and historical sciences concepts, geology is concerned with empirical data acquisition of the Earth's surface and crust through keen observation, documentation and quantification on scales ranging from millimeters to kilometers and from seconds to hundreds of millions of years. Research in geology aims to reconstruct paleogeographic settings to understand the evolution of the Earth's crust as expression of mantle convection, influenced by paleoclimate, and to understand occurrences of the Earth's natural resources and hazards, through judicious application of modern techniques involving state-of-the-art field work, laboratory analysis and modeling.

The field is in midst of a technological revolution involving advances in isotopic mass analysis, satellite-based remote sensing, digitally recording air-borne imaging platforms, 3D-visualization and -modeling capabilities, allowing to improve analysis of structural field relationships, stratigraphic records as well as sedimentological and geomorphological records. Empirically derived geological parameters of vertical motion of the Earth's surface are the only way to test advanced models of the Earth's dynamic behaviour. Geological knowledge also provides unique insights to applied questions such as the generation of renewable energy resources from sedimentary basins through deep drilling, or those regarding the assessment of natural hazards and resources.

At the LMU, geologically-oriented research involves special expertise in Structural Geology and Deformation of the Lithosphere, Active Tectonics and Earthquake Studies, Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, 3D-Visualization and Modeling,  Tectonic Geomorphology and Geological Remote Sensing, Environmental Geology and Fluid-Rock Interaction. Field work is currently being carried out in southern Bavaria, the Alps, the Rhenish Massiv and the Rhinegraben, southeastern Spain, the western United States, Eastern Africa, and southern Iran. Student field camp is normally held in southern Spain, but during the Corona-year, we developed Virtual Field Trips to simulate the field experience. In 2018, we acquired over 10 tons of drill cuttings from a geothermal deep drilling well in the eastern Molasse basin. A new Master's degree programme in geology is currently in the planning stages with an anticipated starting date of Fall 2022. 

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