Architectural Remains of Former Warsaw
Collection of preserved architectural fragments of non-existent Warsaw buildings such as i.a. Bruhl and Kronenberg palaces.
Monumental Erratic Boulders
Exhibition of a group of huge erratic boulders is situated in front of the Museum. The largest of them has the diameter of 9.6 m and weights more than 35 tons. The boulders were recovered from glacial deposits during construction works in different parts of Warsaw. As geological documents of particular value, they are protected by the Museum of the Earth as monuments of inanimate nature.
Lapidarium – Building Stones of Poland
Exhibition is located in the garden surrounding the Museum. The large rocky blocks represent the most important rocks occurring in Poland, used in the construction industry.
Colourful World of Minerals
The purpose of this exhibition is to explain the cause of forming colours that we see when looking at a particular stone, such as chemical composition, presence of inclusions or internal structure. Presented specimens have been arranged by colours and additionally divided into idiochromatic (deriving a characteristic colour from its capacity to absorb certain light rays), allochromatic (having no colour in itself but bearing coloured impurities) and pseudochromatic colours.
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Large Mammals of the Ice Age
The exhibition is dedicated to large mammals that lived in the territory of Poland in the Quaternary, during the Pleistocene, often referred to as the Ice Age. This relatively short – in geological terms – period of around 2.5 million years was characterized by several violent cycles of climate warming and cooling in a global scale that had a direct impact on the expansion of the world of plants and animals. In the Pleistocene sediments many remains of plants and animals have been preserved and among them numerous large mammal bones that allow for reconstruction of these meaningful changes to the natural environment. The exhibition presents mammalian remains discovered in different parts of Poland (also in Warsaw) from glacial and interglacial periods. Remains of cryophilic animals typical for glacial periods presented in the exhibition include: mammoth skeleton (Mammuthus primigenius), woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) and steppe bison (Bison priscus). Thermophilic animals, typical for interglacial periods – warmer than modern times – are represented by: the remains of a straight-tusked elephant, one of the world’s largest Elephantidae species (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), the skull of forest rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus kirchbergensis) one of the four preserved in the world! as well as the skull and bones of an aurochs (Bos primigenius), which lasted until the historical times and the last one died out in 1627, about 40 kilometers west of Warsaw.
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The World of Plants and Climate Change
Our small exhibition presents evidences for global climatic changes that Earth has experienced in the last 65 million years. Fossils all around the world indicate that between 58 – 50 million years ago (late Paleocene – early Eocene) the ocean and atmosphere temperature were much higher than today. This climate episode is known as the PETM –Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum. We present fossil plant remains from that period. The visitors can observe such specimens as leaf impressions and fragment of wood from Eocene of Geiseltal (Germany), a fruit of the nipa palm (Nypa burtini) from Eocene found in Schaarbreek (Belgium). Particularly interesting are leaf impressions from Chłabówka (Poland, southern part of Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains). Even those few presented fossils show clearly that most of the European continent was dominated in Eocene by evergreen, lush subtropical or even paratropical vegetation. The mean annual temperature could have reached up to 20°C! (now it is 8°C in Poland).
Visitors to the Museum can also admire leaf impressions from Paleogene of the Spitsbergen and the Antarctic Peninsula. Fossils from the polar regions emphasise even more clearly the scale of the Paleocene/Eocene global warming and provide evidence that cold and barren high-latitude areas were once covered by temperate forests.
Museum of the Earth Archival Treasury
The exhibition presents selected collection of objects related to important anniversaries and events (e.g. illustrating Poland’s Antarctic research tradition with regard to the International Polar Year).
History of Geology
The exhibit stand mainly presents documents on the history of geology. It chronicles the origins of Earth sciences in Poland and in the world. The exhibition is complemented by attractive exhibits collected by the History of Earth Sciences and Library Section.
Before Coal was Formed
The exhibition presents the richness of vegetation from two of the most important carbon geologic periods in the Earth’s history: Carboniferous and Neogene. It presents reconstructions of various plant communities accomplished based upon fossils found in sediments accompanying bituminous (black) coal deposits (Carboniferous) and brown coal (lignite) (Neogene). The fossil plant specimens originate from the Upper and Lower Silesian coal deposits as well as brown coal mines in Turoszów, Konin and Bełchatów and from the site in Dobrzyń nad Wisłą town.
Our exhibition also intends to remind the visitors that coal is not only the basic energy source in Poland, but also that it is an interesting sedimentary rock of plant origin.