The General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) is the largest and the most important science event about the Earth in Europe. This annual conference, held in Vienna from 23-28 April 2023, attracted more than 18,000 scientists from all over the world and was attended by a strong representation of PGI-NRI staff.

Conference centre where the EGU Assembly was held

The annual EGU General Assembly is held in Vienna since 2005. The EGU is an interdisciplinary association of scientists working and conducting research in earth sciences and related fields, so the sessions organised into thematic groups were remarkably diverse and covered a broad spectrum of research topics.

This year, the General Assembly has been conducted in a hybrid way, but most of the sessions were held stationary. An extraordinarily rich programme included sessions, short courses or lectures by EGU award-winning scientists.

In addition to the traditional presentations in the form of papers and posters, it was also possible to present the results using the so-called PICO (Presenting Interactive Content) format. In such a session, there were initially two-minute presentations of the essence of the paper, and then the full material of the paper was discussed and debated with the participants during individual meetings for each presentation.

The event was also attended by exhibitors related to earth sciences from around the world, including the US space agency NASA.

NASA stand, where results of Solar System research were presented

PICO session – detailed discussions at individual screens

Participation of PGI-NRI staff in the EGU

Within the thematic group ‘Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology (SSP)’, three presentations by PGI-NRI staff, including one online, which are the results of a National Science Centre project, were presented in a PICO-type of session:

• „Lower Permian sediments of the Intrasudetic Basin: a record of cyclic, climatically-controlled transitions from lacustrine to terrestrial conditions„ - Tadeusz Peryt, Izabela Ploch, Paweł Raczyński, Sebastian Voigt, Hubert Kiersnowski, Wojciech Pawlak,
  
  
• „Problematic age and stratigraphic position of the volcano-sedimentary Słupiec/Broumov formation in the Permian of the Intrasudetic Basin” - Izabela Ploch, Marek Awdankiewicz, Wojciech Pawlak, Tadeusz Peryt, Paweł Raczyński, Sebastian Voigt, Magdalena Pańczyk
  
  
• „Development of an ephemeral fluvial system in continental fault-bounded basin – an example from the Early Permian Krajanów Formation of the Intra-Sudetic Basin (NE Bohemian Massif)” - Aleksander Kowalski.
  
  

W ramach grupy tematycznej "Tektonika i Geologia Strukturalna (TS) " pracownicy z Centrum Modelowania Procesów Geologicznych w Oddziale Dolnośląskim PIG-PIB prezentowali swoje wyniki w sesjach posterowych i PICO:

• “Numerical modelling of flanking structures in layered viscous media” - Marcin Dąbrowski,
  
  
• “Role of buckling and sub-salt basement activity on the evolution of salt pillow structure – insights from numerical models and seismic data from the Polish Basin” - Marta Adamuszek, Piotr Krzywiec,
  
  
• “Influence of cap-rock on deformation during extrusion of salt diapir – a numerical study” - Michał Słotwiński, Ondřej Krýza, Prokop Závada, Michael Warsitzka, and Sadegh Adineh,
  
  
• „Brittle tectonics and paleostress analysis of the Strzegom – Sobótka granite massif” - Mariusz Fiałkiewicz, Bartłomiej Grochmal, Marcin Olkowicz, Kamil Bulcewicz, Marcin Dąbrowski.

In addition, Marta Adamuszek co-organised a paper and poster session 'Salt-related deformation', devoted to broadly defined deformation within and around salt deposits and salt structures.

PProf. Dr. Tadeusz Peryt and Dr. Izabela Ploch at the screens of their presentations during the PICO session

Urszula Hara, who is a retired PGI-NRI employee, in a paper entitled. 'Cenozoic bryozoan biota: their palaeoecology and climatic environmental significance in Antarctic ecosystems' presented the results of her work at the Institute.

The Assembly also hosted a meeting of the Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology (SSP) department, which focuses its activities on all aspects of the sedimentary record. The SSP is currently looking for people to lead the department of palaeontology and sedimentology. Therefore, experienced researchers can start their cooperation with EGU in this way. There is also an SSP blog where visitors can find information about e.g., job or internship offers for young scientists in various European research units.

Event website: https://www.egu23.eu/

Text: Izabela Ploch, Tadeusz Peryt
Photos: Izabela Ploch, Danuta Peryt