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The Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences

The Institute of Geological Sciences is a part of the Division III of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

 

History of our institute reaches 1956. We conduct basic geological investigations concerning the origin and formation of rocks and minerals, evolution of selected orogens and reconstruction of ancient environments. Disciplinary areas of research interests include sedimentology, Quaternary geology, isotope geochemistry (especially geochronology), mineralogy, petrology, tectonics, stratigraphy and hydrogeology, also paleontology .

The Headquarters of the Institute is in Warszawa.  
Scientific units of the Institute are research groups residing at Research Centres - in Kraków, Warszawa and Wrocław - along with Doctoral Studies section, laboratories, libraries and the Geological Museum. 

Our Research Groups

Projects and partnership

Latest publications

AuthorsArkadiusz Derkowski, Jan Środoń, Magdalena Goryl, Leszek Marynowski, Marek Szczerba, Stanisław Mazur
Year2020
TitleLong‐distance fluid migration defines the diagenetic history of unique Ediacaran sediments in the East European Craton
MagazineBasin Research, 2020; 00: 1– 24.
DOIdoi.org/10.1111/bre.12485

The diagenetic history of the Ediacaran sedimentary rocks in the East European Craton (EEC) over the area extending from Arkhangelsk (Russia) in the north to Podolia (Ukraine) in the south was revealed by means of the XRD characterization and K–Ar dating of clay fractions, mudstone porosity measurements and organic geochemistry investigations.

 

 

AuthorsPaweł P. Ziemiański, Arkadiusz Derkowski, Jakub Szczurowski, Marcin Koziełc
Year2020
TitleThe structural versus textural control on the methane sorption capacity of clay minerals
MagazineInternational Journal of Coal Geology, Volume 224
DOIdoi.org/10.1007/s00531-019-01814-7

 

Highlights

•High-pressure CH4 adsorption was studied using pure illites and smectites.

•CH4 adsorption occurs in nitrogen-accessible micropore volume.

•CH4 adsorption sites are located mainly outside of the interlayer galleries.

•Organic and divalent cations allow limited adsorption in the interlayers.

•Textural factors are the main control on CH4 adsorption capacity in clay minerals.

 

 

AuthorsStanisław Mazur, Paweł Aleksandrowski, Łukasz Gągała, Piotr Krzywiec, Jerzy Żaba, Krzysztof Gaidzik, Rafał Sikora
Year2020
TitleLate Palaeozoic strike‑slip tectonics versus oroclinal bending at the SW outskirts of Baltica: case of the Variscan belt’s eastern end in Poland
MagazineInternational Journal of Earth Sciences (2020) 109:1133–1160
DOIdoi.org/10.1007/s00531-019-01814-7

Geophysical and geological data from the eastern sector of the Central European Variscan belt are presented and reviewed in the regional tectonic context. Matched filtering of isostatic gravity, guided by results of spectral analysis, along with other derivatives of gravity and magnetic fields reveal a dominant WNW–ESE-trending pre-Permian structural grain in the external zones of the Variscan belt in Poland.

Authors Magdalena Krajcarz, Maciej T. Krajcarz, Mateusz Baca, Chris Baumann, Wim Van Neer,Danijela Popović,Magdalena Sudoł-Procyk, Bartosz Wach, Jarosław Wilczyński,Michał Wojenka, and Hervé Bocherens
Year2020
TitleAncestors of domestic cats in Neolithic Central Europe: Isotopic evidence of a synanthropic diet
MagazineProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Jul 2020, 201918884
DOIdoi.org/10.1073/pnas.1918884117

Most of today’s domesticates began as farm animals, but cat domestication took a different path. Cats became commensal of humans somewhere in the Fertile Crescent, attracted to early farmers’ settlements by rodent pests. Cat remains from Poland dated to 4,200 to 2,300 y BCE are currently the earliest evidence for the migration of the Near Eastern wildcat to Central Europe. Tracking the possible synanthropic origin of that migration, we used stable isotopes to investigate the paleodiet. We found that the ecological balance was already changed due to the expansion of Neolithic farmlands. We conclude that among the Late Neolithic Near Eastern wildcats from Poland were free-living individuals, who preyed on rodent pests and shared ecological niches with native European wildcats.

AuthorsWiesława Radmacher, Karolina Kobos, Jarosław Tyszka, Agata Jarzynka, José Antonio Arz
Year2020
TitlePalynological indicators of palaeoenvironmental perturbations in the Basque-Cantabrian Basin during the latest Cretaceous (Zumaia, northern Spain)
MagazineMarine and Petroleum Geology, Volume 112, February 2020, 104107
DOIdoi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2019.104107

 

Highlights

•Palynofacies are used for palaeoenvironmental study.

•Lower/upper Maastrichtian in the Basque-Cantabrian Basin marked by abundant Leiosphaeridia spp.

•Late Maastrichtian is characterised by marine regression.

•Leiosphaeridia spp. are associated with the regressive phase.

 

 

AuthorsJoanna Mirosław-Grabowska, Milena Obremska, Edyta Zawisza, Magdalena Radzikowska, Joanna Stańczak
Year2020
TitleTowards a dystrophic lake: The history of Smolak Lake (northern Poland) on the basis of geochemical and biological data
MagazineCATENA, Volume 187, April 2020
DOIdoi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2019.104262

 

Highlights

•Dystrophy is recorded in composition of organic matter and phyto- and zooplankton.

•Transition into dystrophy occurred in different lakes at different times.

•Dystrophy is strongly associated with the lake’s size and features of its catchment.

 

 

AuthorsAlicja Wudarska, Ewa Słaby, Michael Wiedenbeck, Łukasz Birski, Richard Wirth, Jens Götze, Aivo Lepland, Christof Kusebauch and Izabela Kocjan
Year2020
TitleChlorine Isotope Composition of Apatite from the >3.7 Ga Isua Supracrustal Belt, SW Greenland
MagazineMinerals 2020; 10(1):27.
DOIdoi.org/10.3390/min10010027

The study of the oldest surviving rock suites is crucial for understanding the processes that shaped the early Earth and formed an environment suitable for life. The metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks of the early Archean Isua supracrustal belt contain abundant apatite, the geochemical signatures of which may help decipher ancient environmental conditions.

AuthorsŁukasz Słonka, Piotr Krzywiec
Year2020
Title Seismic Characteristics and Development of the Upper Jurassic Carbonate Buildups from the Miechów Trough (Southern Poland)
MagazineGeosciences 2020, 10(6), 239
DOIdoi.org/10.3390/geosciences10060239

The presented study is devoted to the subsurface Upper Jurassic carbonate buildups and surrounding stratified inter-buildup deposits in the hitherto less recognized area, in comparison with other parts of the northern Tethyan shelf in Poland and Europe. The study area is located within the present-day Miechów Trough, almost entirely covered by thick Cretaceous and younger deposits.

AuthorsDanuta Peryt, Przemysław Gedl & Tadeusz Marek Peryt
Year2020
TitleMarine transgression(s) to evaporite basin: The case of middle Miocene (Badenian) gypsum in the Central Paratethys, SE Poland
MagazineJournal of Palaeogeography 9, 16 (2020)
DOIdoi.org/10.1186/s42501-020-00062-0

The middle Miocene Badenian evaporite basin of the Carpathian Foredeep Basin was a saline lake, separated by a barrier from the sea and supplied with seawater seeping through the barrier or overflowing it occasionally in the form of short-lived marine transgressions. Such transgressions could leave behind marine microfossils in marly clay intercalations.

Authors Maciej J. Bojanowski; Magdalena Goryl; Barbara Kremer; Beata Marciniak-Maliszewska; Leszek Marynowski; Jan Środoń
Year2020
TitlePedogenic siderites fossilizing Ediacaran soil microorganisms on the Baltica paleocontinent
MagazineGeology (2020) 48 (1): 62–66.
DOIdoi.org/10.1130/G46746.1

Ediacaran siderite-bearing sedimentary rocks from the western part of the East European craton exhibit features typical of redoximorphic paleosols, including pedogenic siderite (e.g., sphaerosiderite) with uniform and negative δ18O and highly variable δ13C values. The siderite precipitated in water-logged soils in a hot and humid climate, and represents a rare example of pedogenic siderite formed before the rise of vascular plants.

AuthorsŁukasz Birski, Ewa Słaby, R. Wirth, M. Koch-Müller, K. Simon, Alicja Wudarska, J. Götze, A. Lepland, A. Hofmann & A. Kuras
Year2019
TitleArchaean phosphates: a case study of transformation processes in apatite from the Barberton greenstone belt
MagazineContributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 174, 25 (2019)
DOIdoi.org/10.1007/s00410-019-1560-z

Multiple tools have been used to determine the sensitivity of phosphates from the early Archaean Barberton greenstone belt to transformation. The assessment of the degree of transformation is crucial for verifying data about the parameters of the paleo-environment.

AuthorsHelena Hercman, Michał Gąsiorowski, Jacek Pawlak, Marcin Błaszczyk, Michał Gradziński, Šárka Matoušková, Paweł Zawidzki, Pavel Bella
Year2020
TitleAtmospheric circulation and the differentiation of precipitation sources during the Holocene inferred from five stalagmite records from Demänová Cave System (Central Europe)
MagazineThe Holocene, Volume: 30 issue: 6, page(s): 834-846
DOIdoi.org/10.1177/0959683620902224

Five stalagmites from the Demänová Cave System (DCS, Western Carpathians, Slovakia), spanning the period from 13,000 to 500 a BP, were analyzed for their oxygen and carbon stable isotopic composition of the calcite. The isotopic data obtained from several stalagmites located in one cave system allow us to separate the changes of regional/global importance from the local changes. Oxygen isotope ratios point to dynamic changes in the environment at the onset of the Holocene.

AuthorsDariusz Botor, Aneta A. Anczkiewicz, Stanisław Mazur & Tomasz Siwecki
Year2019
TitlePost-Variscan thermal history of the Intra-Sudetic Basin (Sudetes, Bohemian Massif) based on apatite fission track analysis
MagazineInternational Journal of Earth Sciences, 2019, Volume 108, Number 8, Page 2561
DOIdoi.org/10.1007/s00531-019-01777-9

The Intra-Sudetic Basin, a ~ 12 km deep Variscan intramontane basin, has the best preserved post-orogenic sedimentary record available at the NE margin of the Bohemian Massif. Apatite fission track (AFT) analyses have been performed on 16 sedimentary and volcanic samples of Carboniferous to Cretaceous age from the Intra-Sudetic Basin to improve understanding of the post-Variscan thermal evolution.

Authors S.J. Porębski; R. Anczkiewicz; M. Paszkowski; S. Skompski; A. Kędzior; S. Mazur; J. Szczepański; A. Buniak; Z. Mikołajewski
Year2019
TitleHirnantian icebergs in the subtropical shelf of Baltica: Evidence from sedimentology and detrital zircon provenance
MagazineGeology (2019) 47 (3): 284–288.
DOIdoi.org/10.1130/G45777.1

The widespread glaciomarine record of the Hirnantian (end-Ordovician) glaciation is confined to peri-Gondwanan terranes in Variscan Europe and, hence, is of little use for assessing the equatorward range of icebergs that calved from the North Gondwana ice sheet into the Rheic Ocean. New sedimentological investigations aided by laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry detrital zircon dating of Hirnantian diamictites from the East European craton in Poland demonstrate that the iceberg pathways extended to subtropical Baltica.

AuthorsBartosz Budzyń, Jiří Sláma
Year2019
TitlePartial resetting of U–Pb ages during experimental fluid-induced re-equilibration of xenotime
MagazineLithos, vol. 346-347,
DOI10.1016/j.lithos.2019.105163

Highlights:

•Coupled dissolution-reprecipitation reactions affect xenotime at 550–650 °C.

•Fluid-induced alterations can result in xenotime U–Pb age disturbance at 550–650 °C.

•Xenotime preserves original isotopic age record in experiments up to 450 °C

AuthorsPaszkowski M., Budzyń B., Mazur S., Sláma J., Shumlyanskyy L., Środoń J., Dhuime B., Kędzior A., Liivamägi S., Pisarzowska A.
Year2019
TitleDetrital zircon U-Pb and Hf constraints on provenance and timing of deposition of the Mesoproterozoic to Cambrian sedimentary cover of the East European Craton, Belarus
MagazinePrecambrian Research Volume 331

The sedimentary cover of the East European Craton (EEC) is unique because of its low degree of diagenetic alteration that allows preservation of the original “source to sink” relationships. The present study provides U-Pb and Hf zircon data for the entire Proterozoic sedimentary section of the EEC based on samples from five boreholes in Belarus within the Volyn-Orsha Basin, one of the most important sedimentary basins of the craton.

AuthorsKołtonik K., Isaacson P., Pisarzowska A., Paszkowski M., Augustsson C., Szczerba M., Slama J., Budzyń B., Stachacz M.,
Year2019
TitleProvenance of upper Paleozoic siliciclastics rocks from two high-latitude glacially influenced intervals in Bolivia
MagazineJournal of South American Earth Sciences, Volume 92, June 2019, Pages 12-31

The Toregua Formation in northern Bolivia comprises a continuous succession of sedimentary rocks containing two glacial intervals related to the onset of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA).

AuthorsAlberti M., Arabas A., Fürsich F. T., Andersen N., Ziółkowski P.
Year2019
TitleThe Middle to Upper Jurassic stable isotope record of Madagascar: linking temperature changes with plate tectonics during the break-up of Gondwana
MagazineGondwana Research, 73,1-15.

Stable isotope (δ18O, δ13C) analyses were performed on well preserved belemnites, oysters, and rhynchonellid brachiopods from the Middle to Upper Jurassic of the Morondava Basin in southern Madagascar.