Museum of Geology
Museo de la Geología
- Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas
- Visit our website
- c/ José Antonio Novais nº 12
Ciudad Universitaria
28040 - MADRID - museogeo@ucm.es
- 91 394 4880
- Moncloa, Ciudad Universitaria
- G, 82, 132
Collections
The Museum of Geology brings together an important collection of minerals, rocks, fossils and ancient geological instruments, as well as all geology-related matters.
History
The Museum of Geology offers a journey along the history and future of this science. Although it was initially conceived as a museum of minerals of the Iberian Peninsula, eventually it has become a representation of the multiple disciplines that a complex science as geology comprises. It was opened in 2010, after a temporary exhibition on the "Fossil Record". Since then, the museum has been gathering a large number of objects that lead us from the origin of geological science up to now. From the first scientists who enunciated the fundamental laws, such as Nicolas Steno in the Seventeenth or L'Isle Rome in the Eighteenth Century, to the illustrious Spanish geologists who laid the foundations of the fundamental disciplines that structure geology of our country, as Casiano Prado, José Macpherson, Salvador Calderón, Eduardo Hernandez-Pacheco, etc. In addition, the contributions of our closest teachers Bermudo Meléndez, José Luis Amoros, José María Fuster, Carmina Virgili and so many others deserve mention.
The museum has its own space at the Faculty of Geological Science where most of the objects are shown in a permanent exhibition. The remaining funds are distributed in some corridors and rooms of the Faculty. Regarding the origin of these funds, there is a small collection of minerals and rocks that was specifically acquired for the museum, while other objects on display are donations from individuals and different departments of the Faculty. Most of the objects have no invoice or any other document that proves the acquisition of these pieces, nor any labels attesting that these pieces belong to a specific institution or center. They are unclaimed treasures that invite speculation about its origin and history.
