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THE EPICONTINENTAL TRIASSIC INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften und Geiseltalmuseum, Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany: 21-23 September, 1998

This meeting, held 120 years after the death of Friedrich August von Alberti (1795-1878), fully justified its title. It offered an intensive and varied programme of presentations on many aspects of the Trias, supported by an exhibition and a selection of excursions, and provided a forum for meetings of the German Subcommission on Permian and Triassic Stratigraphy and of the IUGS/ICS Subcommission on Triassic Stratigraphy and two of its component bodies, the Permian-Triassic Boundary and the Non-Marine Triassic working groups. It attracted some 200 registrants from more than 20 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas; participants from the host nation were only slightly more numerous than those from other countries.

The Symposium began on 21 September with welcoming remarks, followed by a full morning plenary session with eight scientific contributions. Subsequent proceedings ran in two parallel sessions, accommodating 80 scheduled presentations, until the closing plenary session, with four scientific contributions and closing remarks, on the afternoon of 23 September. A large number of posters, many illustrating contributions to the lecture programme, were exhibited throughout the symposium. A 202-page Abstracts volume was published as Hallesches Jahrbuch für Geowissenschaften, Reihe B, Beiheft 5 (1998).

Pre-symposium excursions included a three-day visit to the Buntsandstein of the Hessian depression, and one-day visits to the Permian of the Saale Basin, the Buntsandstein and Muschelkalk in the central Germanic basin and the Jena region, and the Keuper of the Erfurt district. Post-symposium excursions included short visits to the Buntsandstein of the Jena region and the Buntsandstein and Muschelkalk around Halle, and longer excursions to the Triassic in the central Germanic basin (2 days) and the classic Germanic Triassic of the southern Germanic basin (4 days). A 250-page Excursions guide was published as Hallesches Jahrbuch für Geowissenschaften, Reihe B, Beiheft 6 (1998).
Even people who were not participants in the symposium could not have remained unaware of its subject because an exhibition, ‘Trias. Eine ganz andere welt - Europa vor 250 Millionen Jahren' was widely advertised in Halle. The exhibition was staged in six rooms in the Stadt museum and vividly conveyed many aspects of the biota and environments of the region during the Triassic. The timely publication, by the Friedrich von Alberti Stiftung, of a reprint of Alberti's seminal 1834 contribution ‘Beitrag zu einer Monographie des Bunten Sandsteins, Muschelkalks und Keuper, und die Verbinderung dieser Gebilde zu einer Formation' (see notice elsewhere in this issue) contributed further to the ‘Triassic' atmosphere.

Participants had the opportunity to make or renew acquaintances at a welcoming party, with music, held in the courtyard of the Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften und Geiseltalmuseum on the evening before the start of the Symposium, and further hospitality was offered on subsequent evenings. On 21 September the Mayor of the City of Halle, Dr Rauen, welcomed participants to an evening reception in the Stadthaus, after which the exhibition ‘Trias. Eine ganz andere welt', was visited in the nearby Stadtmuseum. On 22 September traditional music greeted participants to the Hallorenabend in the Salinemuseum, where a welcoming address was given by the senior member of the Salzwirkerbrüderschaft im Thale zu Halle, who appeared in traditional dress. Silver items from the collection of the brüderschaft was displayed and demonstrations of the traditional method of preparation of salt from brine were given throughout the evening. The generous hospitality extended at these convivial events was greatly appre- ciated by all who attended.

Professor Dr Gerhard H. Bachmann and his colleagues on the symposium team planned and organised a very efficiently run and extremely stimulating event. A symposium volume will be published and this will be a ‘must' for anyone professing an interest in the Trias.

G. Warrington

Secretary-General, Subcommission on Triassic Stratigraphy

Epicontinental Triassic International Symposium publications

About 70 papers have been submitted for publication in the symposium volume, and these are currently being edited. To register interest in this volume, please send your name and full postal address to:

Professor Dr I. Lerche

Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Fachbereich Geowissenschaften
Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften und Geiseltalmuseum
Domstrasse 5
D-06108 Halle (Saale)
Germany
Tel: +49 345 552 6119
FAX: +49 345 552 7178

Further information and order forms will be sent, in due course, to all who advise Professor Lerche of their interest.

Enquiries about the availability and price of the symposium Abstracts volume and the Excursion guide, which were published in Hallesche Jahrbuch für Geowissenschaften (see Halle Symposi um report elsewhere in this issue), should be directed to:

Dr F. Eigenfeld