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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

AuthorsMirosław Jastrzębski, Andrzej Żelaźniewicz, Jiří Sláma, Ewa Krzemińska, Marek Śliwiński
Year2025
Tytuł The Eo-Variscan domain in the Variscan belt: New data from the Sudetes, southern Poland
MagazineLithos Volumes 504–505
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2025.108058

 

Highlights

 

AuthorsSJérémie Soldner; Karel Schulmann; Pavla Štípská; Yingde Jiang
Year2025
TytułPaleozoic tectonothermal history of the amalgamation of the Tarim–North China and Mongolian collages
MagazineJournal of the Geological Society, Volume 182, Number 2
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2024-100

In the Mongolian Collage, metamorphic pressure–temperature (P–T) and timing reveal a one-stage evolution defined by a duality of late Neoproterozoic–Ordovician subduction-related low T/P metamorphism and suprasubduction high T/P metamorphism recorded in the Mongolia–Manchuria and Baikal–Sayan belts. This was followed by gradual prevalence of suprasubduction high T/P metamorphism towards the late Paleozoic corresponding to the Altai and South Altai cycles.

AuthorsMagdalena Krajcarz, Chris Baumann, Hervé Bocherens, Samantha Presslee, Maciej T. Krajcarz
Year2025
TytułDietary preferences and collagen to collagen prey-predator trophic discrimination factors (Δ13C, Δ15N) in late Pleistocene cave hyena
MagazineQuaternary Research , Volume 123 , January 2025
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2024.43

The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) was an important large carnivore of Pleistocene ecosystems in Africa and Eurasia. Like its modern relatives, this obligate carnivore was adapted to crush and digest bones of its prey and absorb organic matter from bones more efficiently than any other carnivore. This difference in the nutrient resource use between hyenas and most other carnivores led to differences in the isotope flux and variation in the carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition. In our paper, we assess the prey-to-hyena collagen-to-collagen Δ13C and Δ15N trophic discrimination factor (TDF), a key parameter needed in mixing models used for quantitative reconstruction of diet.

AuthorsStanisław Mazur, Karel Schulmann
Year2025
TytułAt the border of peri-Gondwana and Baltica: the structure of the eastern termination of the Variscan belt
MagazineJournal of the Geological Society, Volume 182
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2024-075 3

The termination of the eastern Variscan belt has long been a matter of debate because it is deeply concealed beneath younger sediments. Its geometry has been addressed by the two competing hypotheses of the Variscan orocline and right-lateral strike-slip tectonics. We compiled a set of new gravity and magnetic maps for the Czech Republic, Poland and eastern Germany to track Variscan structures in the subsurface. These maps clearly show that the Rheno-Hercynian Suture turns by almost 90° east of the Harz Mountains in Germany and continues into Poland towards the ESE.

AuthorsJoanna Mirosław-Grabowska, Witold Paweł Alexandrowicz, Krzysztof Stefaniak, Sylwia Skoczylas-Śniaz
Year2025
TytułEemian snails from Gorzów Wielkopolski palaeolake (NW Poland): malacological and isotopic data and their ecological implications
MagazineJournal of Paleolimnology, Volume 73
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-024-00349-5

The results of isotope and malacological investigations of mollusc shells from the Eemian Interglacial (MIS 5e) and Vistulian (Weichselian, MIS 5a-d - MIS 4) lake sediments in Gorzów Wielkopolski (NW Poland) are presented. The palaeolake in Gorzów Wielkoposki is the newest paleontological site with the skeleton of the Eemian rhinoceros. The analyzed sediments contained numerous mollusc shells representing 29 species. The dominant species in the malacofauna are Valvata piscinalis and Bithynia tentaculata. Two types of mollusc assemblages have been distinguished, indicating the changes in the lake environment.

 

 

 

 

AuthorsStefano Giunti, Przemysław Gedl, Artur Kędzior, Leszek Marynowski, Mariusz Paszkowski, Andreas Wetzel, Maciej J. Bojanowski
Year2024
TytułHydrocarbon-derived thrombolites from the Outer Carpathians (Lower Cretaceous, Poland)
MagazineSedimentology, Volume71, Issue7, December 2024
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1111/sed.13212

Shallow marine thrombolites from a newly discovered Lower Cretaceous cold seep in the Outer Carpathians (Poland) were analysed in order to untangle the complex sedimentological and biogeochemical processes involved in their formation and their diagenetic modifications. Carbonate precipitation within the framework cavities is interpreted to have been related to bacterial sulphate reduction. U-shaped trace fossils attributed to the ichnogenus  Balanoglossites cross-cut both mesoclots and framework cavities. The mechanisms involved in the formation and diagenesis of thrombolites at cold seeps are yet to be fully understood, and this work provides new insights on these complex biogeochemical and sedimentological processes.

 

 

 

 

AuthorsMartin Qvarnström, Joel Vikberg Wernström, Zuzanna Wawrzyniak, Maria Barbacka, Grzegorz Pacyna, Artur Górecki, Jadwiga Ziaja, Agata Jarzynka, Krzysztof Owocki, Tomasz Sulej, Leszek Marynowski, Grzegorz Pieńkowski, Per E. Ahlberg, Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki
Year2024
TytułDigestive contents and food webs record the advent of dinosaur supremacy
MagazineNature volume 636, pages 397–403 (2024)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08265-4

The early radiation of dinosaurs remains a complex and poorly understood evolutionary event. Here we use hundreds of fossils with direct evidence of feeding to compare trophic dynamics across five vertebrate assemblages that record this event in the Triassic–Jurassic succession of the Polish Basin (central Europe). Bromalites, fossil digestive products, increase in size and diversity across the interval, indicating the emergence of larger dinosaur faunas with new feeding patterns. Well-preserved food residues and bromalite-taxon associations enable broad inferences of trophic interactions. Our results, integrated with climate and plant data, indicate a stepwise increase of dinosaur diversity and ecospace occupancy in the area.

 

 

 

 

AuthorsArtur Kuligiewicz, Arkadiusz Derkowski
Year2024
TytułKinetics and mechanism of (re)hydroxylation in fired clay minerals
MagazineJournal of the American Ceramic Society, Volume 107, Issue 6
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1111/jace.19699

Three types of smectite with various crystallochemical compositions and interlayer cations as well as kaolinite and illite were fired at 800°C and 650°C and tested for their rehydroxylation's (RHX) potential and kinetics in the presence of water vapor at 200°C–350°C. A dehydroxylated structure of 2:1 Al-rich mineral with the interlayer pillared by a large cation (like K+ or Cs+) is wide enough to allow H2O diffusion which results in advanced RHX, that is, restoring up to several tens of percent of the original OH content.

 

 

 

 

AuthorsM. Ponikowska, S. M. Stovba, S. Mazur, M. Malinowski, P. Krzywiec, Q. Nguyen, C. Hübscher
Year2024
TytułCrustal-Scale Pop-Up Structure at the Junction of Two Continental-Scale Deformation Zones in the Southern Baltic Sea
MagazineTectonics, Volume43, Issue4, April 2024
DOI https://doi.org/10.1029/2023TC008066

 

Key Points

AuthorsStanisław Mazur
Year2024
TytułAn Outline of the Geology of Poland
BookLandscapes and Landforms of Poland, Migoń, P., Jancewicz, K. (eds) Landscapes and Landforms of Poland. World Geomorphological Landscapes. Springer, Cham Chapter, pp 3–17
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45762-3_1

The complexity of Poland's geology is due to its location at the junction of three major geological provinces of Europe: (1) the East European Precambrian Platform, (2) the Palaeozoic Platform, and (3) the Carpathians. The East European Platform corresponds to an old and stable Precambrian craton, extending over the eastern half of the continent and mostly covered by weakly deformed Proterozoic to Phanerozoic sediments.