Special exhibition at the Museum of Natural History Chemnitz
On Tuesday, 1 June, the Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz will reopen to visitors. The facility in the TIETZ and the new special exhibition "Petrified Weather" can be viewed by appointment.
The special exhibition, which is on display until 7 November, is dedicated to ubiquitous elements of the weather, such as drought, wind, rain and thunderstorms. Historical records of these phenomena are sporadic and at best only go back a few millennia. Stones, on the other hand, can store data for hundreds of millions of years. In fact, stones are the most comprehensive and informative weather archive on earth.
Almost every weather element leaves fossilised traces. A brilliant flash of lightning can strike the sandy soil and fuse the grains of sand together. The resulting lightning tube still records the thunderstorm event centuries later. Heavy rain leaves impact marks in the ground. Under certain conditions, the rain marks are preserved for millions of years. As in a criminal case, the exhibition uncovers fossilised traces of weather, atmospheric conditions and climate.
Want to take the weather into your own hands? The special exhibition offers this at a total of nine interactive stations. There is also a digital exhibition guide with discovery tours and games for young and old weathermen.
The special exhibition was developed in cooperation with palaeontologists from the GEOSKOP prehistoric museum at Lichtenberg Castle (Rhineland/Palatinate).