A long way away
School placement semester abroad
Out and about
Fieldwork around the world
World map showing locations by coordinates: in Greenland, Chile, Antarctica, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Mongolia and Tibet.
Image: twotype Design
They travel by ship, military aircraft or by Jeep. They camp out in tents and cover up to 20 kilometres on foot every day. They brave storms, extreme temperatures and solitude. Tracing the history of the Earth and humankind, as well as climate change and its consequences, researchers from the university experience nature up close—both in remote corners of the world and on their own doorstep.
Chile, Atacama Desert: Working in a mine
A view of the archaeological site in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.
Image: PHILIPPE MOISANGeologist Diego Volosky spent two weeks working in a disused gold mine in the Andes. »We spent whole days breaking up rocks with hammers and digging for fossils. We only had a short break at lunchtime.« The Chilean mine where the researchers were excavating is located at an altitude of around 4,000 metres above
sea level.
Antarctica: A landfill site at the end of the world
A person dressed in red is walking across a snow-covered expanse in Antarctica. Christina Braun’s team regularly travels to the Fildes Peninsula in Antarctica for research purposes.
Image: Christina BraunBiologist Christina Braun spent her 16th summer in Antarctica with three students. For more than 40 years, a team from the University of Jena has been monitoring Antarctic breeding birds—and recently, collecting washed-up rubbish has also become part of their daily routine. The research station on King George Island in Antarctica is located around 14,000 kilometres as the crow flies from Jena.
Greenland: Arctic solitude
During their explorations of Lake Saqqap Tasersua, archaeologists Clemens Pasda and Clemens Beck did not encounter a single person in over three weeks. They did, however, discover stone tools and summer camps used by the Inuit for hunting caribou over 2,000 years ago.
Mongolia: At the mercy of the elements
The Mongolian steppe. A jeep and a few tents appear in the distance.
Image: Anna VinczeBiologist Anna Vincze was caught in a violent storm during an expedition in which her team was investigating the effects of climate change on plant communities. »That really brought home to us the extent to which we
are at the mercy of nature.«
Tibet: 20 hours in rough waters
A floating drilling platform on Lake Nam Co in Tibet.
Image: Olga SchmitzGeoscientist Olga Schmitz took part in a research drilling project on a floating platform at an altitude of 4,700 metres in Lake Nam Co. »One of the most intense experiences was a 20-hour night shift, as the transport boat was unable to reach the platform due to heavy swell and monsoon rains.« About 500 metres is the length of the longest continuous drill core from Nam Co.
Germany, Thuringia: Beech trees are dying
Fish-eye view: A dense canopy of beech trees in the Hainich region of Thuringia.
Image: Sören HeseHydrogeologist Kai Uwe Totsche has been visiting Hainich National Park regularly with the AquaDiva CRC team since 2009. »Even to the untrained eye, it is clear that mature beech trees are dying due to extreme
drought. This also has consequences for groundwater quality.«
United Arab Emirates: Survival in the desert
A vast landscape with sand dunes in the Emirate of Sharjah.
Image: Knut BretzkeArchaeologist Knut Bretzke has regularly led excavation projects in the United Arab Emirates and Oman, tracing the footsteps of Palaeolithic Homo sapiens. »On closer inspection, the desert is anything but empty. Even our earliest ancestors found ways to survive here.« The oldest stone tools found to date in the Emirate of Sharjah are 210,000 years old.
