The UAB hosts a new edition of the Geology Olympiad

The 16th Geology Olympiad of Catalonia, organised by the Spanish Association for the Teaching of Earth Sciences (AEPECT) and the Geological Society of Spain (SGE), was held last Friday 14 February. As in previous editions, participants took part simultaneously in six venues: Barcelona (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, University of Barcelona and Escola Politècnica Superior d’Enginyeria de Manresa), Lleida (University of Lleida), Girona (University of Girona) and Tarragona (Rovira i Virgili University).

This year, 540 students participated in the event, mostly high school students, from 49 schools throughout Catalonia. The UAB hosted 91 participants.

Once the tests were over, participants and their teachers attended the different activities and talks organised at the different venues. At the UAB, geologist Álvaro González, member of the complex systems group of the Mathematical Research Center (CRM), gave a talk entitled “Earthquakes and tsunamis: Everything you should know and didn't know you should ask”.

After the closing conference, the names of the winners of the contest, who will represent the territory in the state phase, were announced. In addition, the winners were presented with tickets to visit the two Catalan geoparks, the Orígens Geopark and the Geopark of Central Catalonia, as well as copies of books from the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia (ICGC). Of the UAB participants, the winners were Daniel Martínez Casas, from the Institut Vilanova del Vallès, in first position, and Derek Cuesta De Castro, from INS Thalassa, in Montgat, in second position. Both classified for the national phase.

The centres of the winners of each venue also received the ICGC's Atles geològic de Catalunya. As a novelty of this edition, the best student of the 4th year of secondary school was awarded an outing for the whole class to the Geopark of Central Catalonia. All participants were awarded gifts from the ICGC, such as maps and tables of geological times, thus promoting interest in earth sciences among students.

On 5 April, the winners of each venue, 13 in total, will participate in the national phase of the Spanish Geology Olympiad, which this year will be held in Tremp. The winners of the national phase will make up the state team that will compete in the International Earth Sciences Olympiad (IESO 2025), which will take place from 7 to 17 August in Jining, China.