Geology Museum

The Middle East Technical University Geology Museum, was started in 1995 and displays rocks, minerals, fossils, gemstones and historic mining artifact exhibits on 150 meter square hall located at the entrance floor of the Department of Geological Engineering. It is the home of more than thousand mineral, rock and fossil samples which are collected by the members and graduates of the Department or donated by the collectors since 1963, the date of foundation of the Department.

Among the other displays are one of the oldest geological maps of Turkey by Tchihatceff (1867) and former laboratory equipments such as the UV-lamp (1940), theodolite (1950), petrographic microscope (1963), tourmaline toungs and specific gravity balance (1963) and automatic point counter (1968) used by the early students in the Department's laboratories. There is a beautiful large wall panel which exhibits examples of the industrial building stones from various well known locations both from Turkey and other countries, such as from Marmara Island, Afyon, Kayseri, Trakya, Milas, Çankırı, Spain, China, Brazil, U.S.A., Labrador and Portugal.

The Geology Museum consists of different divisions. At the entrance of the main hall, the most typical and beautiful samples of minerals are demonstrated in the three showcases.

In the main hall, the mineral samples are exhibited in groups according to their chemical compositions as the native elements, sulfites, sulphates, oxides, carbonates and silicates. World wide known colourful agates from Çubuk (North of Ankara) also occupy a special showcase among the silicate minerals.

For the "Gemstone" quality varieties of agate, obsidian, turquoise, amethyst, rubellite, quartz, garnet, lapis lazuli and malachite a separate showcase is present in the Museum.

The "Ore and Industrial Minerals" are recollected to appreciate their importance in economic and mining geology.

The rock samples of magmatic, sedimentary and metamorphic origins are exhibited in the Geology Museum to show their characteristic textures and mineral compositions. Magmatic rocks such as granite, syenite, basalt and obsidian, sedimentary rocks known as conglomerate, sandstone and limestone, and the metamorphic rocks which are known as gneiss and schist are quite typical and distinguishable in many showcases.

The particular part of the Geology Museum is allocated for the fossils which are the subjects of various geologic and paleontological points of interest. The Eocene Nummulites from Haymana (Ankara) area, Triassic Ammonites orthoceras from Esenboğa (Ankara) and Miocene leaf prints from Kızılcahamam are some samples in exhibition.

Entry to the Geology Museum is free through Monday to Friday 9.00-17.00.