• Institute of Geosciences

The Institute of Geosciences

In the Masters and Bachelors study programs we teach how to use natural sciences for understanding the structure, evolution and dynamic of planet Earth. This covers processes ranging from the deep inner Earth to those at the Earth's surface. Understanding processes of the solid Earth is the essence of geoscientific research and an important part for solving current, societally relevant environmental problems. Therefore, our curriculum offers a wide spectrum of methods and research topics drawn from the different research groups within the institute, as well as a range of international study programs, and an excellent graduate school.
 

The institut occupies a central position in the Research Focus Earth Sciences (RFES) and is an active partner in the Geo.X coordinating platform, in which the Earth and Enviromental Science research institutes in the Berlin-Potsdam area are tightly networked.

The institute hosts the GeoUnion (M.Strecker).

Dreimal Kinder-Universität – Wissenschaft trifft Schule online, digital und unterwegs

Die Kinder-Uni der Universität Potsdam wird auch 2021 vor allem online stattfinden: Schülerinnen und Schüler von Grundschulen aus ganz Brandenburg können sich am 24. September ein ...

molecular dynamics simulation

Platinum hitches a ride with sulfur in the Earth’s crust

Platinum group elements (PGE, also termed platinoids) have been believed to be extremely poorly soluble and little mobile in natural fluids ...

Online Summer School "Trends, Rhythms and Events in the Earth’s Climate System"

Reise durch das Weltklima am Computer

Online Summer School "Trends, Rhythms and Events in the Earth’s Climate System"

Foto Prof. M. Strecker

Seniorprofessur an der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät

Leibniz-Preisträger Prof. Manfred Strecker Ph.D. wurde die erste Seniorprofessur der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Potsdam

Photo of Prof. Dr. Sobolev

Prof. Sobolev newly elected to the prestigious Academia Europaea

Stephan Sobolev is called into the Academia based on his sustained academic excellence in his field.

Climate time series from the Chew Bahir Basin in southern Ethiopia

Tipping climate in Eastern Africa: New publication in Nature Geoscience

The climate time series from the Chew Bahir Basin in southern Ethiopia shows one of the best examples of climate tipping, the transition from one stable condition to another. About 5,500 years ago, th

With progressing global warming, sea ice melting across the Arctic Ocean is expected to further increase and might be even accelerated by the newly described oceanic heat-channel that pumps heat into the high northern latitudes. | copyright: Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr, University of Potsdam

How the Mediterranean Sea heats up the far north – Study shows climatic correlations

A new study has identified warm waters originating from the Mediterranean Sea as an unexpected but potent pacemaker of high-latitude warming and might even accelerate it in the near future.

Zwei Potsdamer Forschende Two Potsdam researchers are involved in the new international Center for Molecular Water Science, which has now publishsind am neuen internationalen Zentrum für Molekulare Wasserforschung beteiligt, das nun sein Forschungsprogramm veröffentlicht hat. Foto: AdobeStock/magann

Secrets of the Water – White Paper of the Centre for Molecular Water Science published

Two Potsdam researchers are involved in the new international Center for Molecular Water Science, which has now published its research program.

Höhle auf Island

WISSENSSTADT SUMMER CINEMA: "JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH

Prof. (apl.) Dr. Altenberger is on July 30th scientific guest and discussion partner of the Berlin Science City summer cinema "Jules Verne (1864) Journey to the center of the earth" (Geo-Fantasy 1959)

Research area of Prof. Strecker, Andes, N-W-Argentina

Prof. Strecker: Newly elected member of the Academy of Sciences of Argentina

Wissenschaftliche Bohrungen im Chew-Bahir-Becken im südlichen Äthiopie

Newly discovered African ‘climate seesaw’ drove human evolution

Int. researchers led by Dr Kaboth-Bahr found out: Ancient El Niño-like weather patterns define environmental change in sub-Saharan Africa during a critical time for the evolution of our species

Konjugierte Abschiebungen in nahezu idealer Ausrichtung zur Dehnung bilden einen kleinen Graben in miozänen Sediment-Schichten, die Erosionsprodukte aus dem Elburs-Gebirge sind.

Album der festen Erde

Datenbank „DIoGeneS“ zu geologischen Strukturen am Institut für Geowissenschaften öffentlich zugänglich

Überblendung beider Themenbilder

Moderne Auswerteverfahren und AR-Visualisierungen werden gefördert

Die Projektideen „Klassifizierung von Georadardaten zur automatisierten Zustandserfassung von Bahntrassen“ und „Visualisierung von Landschaftsveränderungen mittels AR in realer Umgebung“ überzeugten.

Glacial Ice holds rocks and gravel – if glaciers melt, large amount of loose gravel gets accumulated in the high mountainous valleys of the Alps

Increased Risk of landslides

Earth science researchers from Potsdam and Bozen demand for new precaution strategies for gravitational mass movements in the Alps

Representation of atomic clusters formed by gold, arsenic and sulfur in arsenian pyrite

A mineral pump for gold in the Earth’s crust

An international team of scientists with participation of Dr. Maria Kokh from the University of Potsdam was able to elucidate the mystery of ‘invisible’ gold enriched in sulfide minerals.

Titelbild des Vortrags

Geoethics - Integrity and Ethics in Science in Higher Education

Geoethics - Integrity and Ethics in Science in Higher Education - A keynote lecture by John Geissmann, Professor of Geosciences, University of Texas at Dallas - recorded on Monday, January 4,

Peter van der Beek explains how ³HE and ⁴HE are separated and measured independently.

Looking at smallest atoms to understand large-scale Mountain ranges

A welcome to Peter van der Beek at the Institute of Geosciences

Humboldt Fellow Gautier Nicoli (3.v.l.) does his research at the Skaergaard Intrusion, Greenland

Seen from the root of mountains

Humboldt Fellow Gautier Nicoli links plate tectonics and the carbon cycle

Kenia 2018

Geoscientific research of highest international standards

EGU honours two faculty members of the Institute of Geosciences

The Olorgesailie Basin in the Kenya Rift Valley, part of the Eastern Branch of the East African Rift System. In the background the high topography of the Rift’s border faults.

Calculated

Why a whole region is rotating in the middle of Africa

Daniel Vollmer, instaling a multi-sensor observatory in Iceland.

Fire and Ice – why Eva Eibl does research in Iceland in the mid of winter

People from all over the world travel through Iceland to see glaciers, waterfalls, volcanoes, geysers - but the true highlights are hidden from the eye.

Jonathan Weiss while monitoring GPS-Ground Motion sensors in the Andean Highlands. Photo: J. Weiss.

From GPS to geodynamics - how surface measurements help understand earthquakes and Earth structure

While there are some well-established theories of orogenesis, many aspects of how, when and why mountain ranges are created remain a mystery.

Recent Publications