BASALT 2025

Steirisches Vulkanland

28. 09. – 02. 10. 2025

in Kapfenstein / Styria / Austria in the Steirisches Vulkanland

The Steirisches Vulkanland is located in the southeast of Austria in the center of Europe. The foundation stone for the Steirisches Vulkanland was laid with the vision of transforming the (former) border region into an innovative and livable region. In 1999, the association for the promotion of the Steirisches Vulkanland was founded, and with it the name “Vulkanland” was officially adopted. The decision behind this is to bundle all activities in the region and make them visible using the regional brand “Steirisches Vulkanland”. With the vision of human, ecological and economic sustainability, the Styrian Volcanic Land is on the way to becoming the most livable region in Europe.

Since 2022, making geology and volcanism visible has been a focus of regional projects supported by the federal government, the state and the European Union.

The Styrian Basin is a marginal bay of the Pannonian Basin on the eastern edge of the Alpine arc. Crystalline rocks and paleozoic carbonate rocks form the mountainous frame in the southwest, west and north as well as the geological base of this basin. The Styrian Basin is divided by north-south swells – in the transition to the western Hungarian area this is the South Burgenland Swell. Palaeogeographically, the Styrian Basin is part of the Central Paratethys. The formation of the basin and the associated simultaneous filling began around 18 million years ago. Deposits of limestone, gravel, sand and clay with individual coal layers up to 4000 m thick document a change in the landscape in – form a geological point of view – short periods of time. A characteristic of the Styrian Basin is the former strong volcanic activity. This volcanism, which is part of a volcanic arc that stretches from Slovenia to the Carpathian arc, is assigned to two temporally, chemically and genetically different periods. Calc-alkaline and alkaline magmatism is discussed to be closely related to subduction, rollback, collision and extension. The remains of volcanic structures from two volcanic phases of recent Earth history characterize the landscape, are unique for Austria and form the foundation of the region’s regional development.

Content:

Following the successful Basalt meetings in Görlitz (2013) and Kadan (2017), Basalt 2025 will also address Cenozoic magmatism throughout Europe from a multifaceted perspective across all relevant geoscience disciplines. In addition to facilitating expert exchanges, we aim to make these topics accessible to the general public through accessible presentations. The goal is to present new discoveries, insights, and developments for the understanding and social relevance of this important period in European geological history.

Program:

Sun., 28.09.: Arrival day & come together
Mon., 29.09.: Presentations (primarily an exchange of specialist disciplines)
(dinner together)
Tue., 30.09.: Late Morning: Presentations (for those generally interested), lunch
Afternoon: fieldtrip and dinner (regional specialties)
Wed., 01.10.: Late Morning: Presentations (for those generally interested), lunch
Afternoon: fieldtrip
Galadinner
Tue., 02.10.: Fieldtrip (all day): Trip from the Steirisches Vulkanland to Graz
(Transfer option to railroad station, airport)

The conference venue is the community center in 8353 Kapfenstein 123.

The conference language is English (abstracts in English and German are requested).

Do you have a contribution?

We would also like to offer the event to interested members of the public for participation. We therefore plan to combine “specialist lectures” on Monday (September 29th). On the two half days (September 30th and October 1st), generally understandable topics with social relevance should be presented.
We ask for presentation and poster registrations including a summary (English and German as MS Word document: docx version, Arial 12 p, 1-2 pages DIN A4, title and names of authors, contact) by 31 July 2025 to:

Ingomar Fritz: ingomar.fritz@museum-joanneum.at

Conference documents with abstracts of all presentations and excursion guides will be available for the event. A subsequent publication with expanded contributions is planned for 2026.

Accommodation:

Further accommodation information and travel packages can be found at the Website from the Thermen- & Vulkanland: https://www.steiermark.com/de/Thermen-Vulkanland

Conference office:
Gemeindeamt Kapfenstein
Kapfenstein 123, 8353 Kapfenstein
Anna Knaus-Maurer
knaus-maurer@vulkanland.at