On April 4 in Berlin, the Umbrella Organization of Geosciences in Germany (DV Geo) presented a 70 pages position paper in which researchers develop future perspectives for geoscientific research. Among the almost forty authors are a number of researchers from the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, including the Director of the “Geosystems” Department, Prof. Magdalena Scheck-Wenderoth. In addition to the fundamental importance of the paper, she particularly emphasizes the call for greater use of the subsurface and the proposed “National Geosphere Observatory”. 

“Georesearch is a public service and important for securing our future,” says Magdalena Scheck-Wenderoth, “because almost all resource topics are geo-topics”. She cites water, energy generation and storage, metals and rare earths as examples. 

“Natural hazards are also geo-topics to a large extent: climate-related extreme events such as droughts and floods are on the rise. The melting of continental ice and glaciers is leading to more earthquakes in the long term,” says Prof. Marco Bohnhoff. He heads the Geomechanics and Scientific Drilling Section at GFZ. 

Underground use is particularly important for geothermal energy. Drilling programs are indispensable in order to safely provide heat with base load capability, i.e. 24/7, and to further reduce the exploration risk for investors. A precise exploration of the underground through drilling also helps to safely enable the storage of energy carriers such as hydrogen and radioactive waste.

More about the DV Geo white paper on the website: https://www.dvgeo.org/