The Geological Museum was a geology museum on

Øster Voldgade Øster Voldgade ( lit. "East Rampart Street"), together with Vester Voldgade and Nørre Voldgade, forms a succession of large streets which arches around the central and oldest part of the Zealand side of Copenhagen, Denmark. It runs north-east f ...

, at the northeast corner of the

University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden The University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden ( da, Botanisk have), usually referred to simply as Copenhagen Botanical Garden, is a botanical garden located in the centre of Copenhagen, Denmark. It covers an area of 10 hectares and is particularly ...

, in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. Like the botanical garden, the museum was part of the wider array of centers belonging to the

Natural History Museum of Denmark The Natural History Museum of Denmark ( da, Statens Naturhistoriske Museum) is a natural history museum located in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was created as a 1 January 2004 merger of Copenhagen's Zoological Museum, Geological Museum, Botanical Muse ...

. The museum was officially renamed

in 2020. The building houses special exhibits but also facilitates research and study as part of the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

, with some of the museum staff actively partaking in research worldwide—for instance, in

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

History

The Geological Museum opened in 1772 as the "Universitetets Nye Naturaltheater" (The New Natural Theatre of the University) and contains specimens which have been in museum collections for more than 300 years. Its original location was in

Nørregade Nørregade (literally "North Street") is a street in central Copenhagen, Denmark, linking Gammeltorv in the south with Nørre Voldgade in the north. Landmarks in the street include Church of Our Lady, Bispegården, St. Peter's Church and Folk ...

, but in 1893 the museum moved into the current building, which was newly built to house the museum. From 1810 to 1976 the name of the museum was Mineralogisk Museum.

Collections

The collections at the Geological Museum have been built up through centuries and include large collections of minerals, fossils, petrology, and meteorites.

Exhibitions

The Geological Museum featured changing exhibitions as well as permanent ones such as The Mineral Exhibition where the minerals are presented in a crystal chemical order starting with elements such as gold and silver and ending with silicates such as feldspar and zeolites. The Agpalilik

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

, a part of the

Cape York meteorite The Cape York meteorite, also known as the Innaanganeq meteorite, is one of the largest known iron meteorites, classified as a medium octahedrite in chemical group IIIAB. In addition to many small fragments, at least eight large fragments with a ...

weighing some 20 tons, can be seen in the museum courtyard. Also on exhibit is a small rock from the Taurus-Littrow region of the Moon, brought back by the

Apollo 17 Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon or traveled beyond low Earth orbit. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on ...

astronauts in 1972.

References

External links

The Natural History Museum of Denmark

The Geological Museum in Copenhagen
(Archived) {{authority control Museums in Copenhagen Geology museums in Denmark University museums in Denmark University of Copenhagen