Geologic Fieldwork for UFAZ Master’s Students Held in the Girdiman River Valley

From September 29 to October 3, UFAZ second-year Master’s students in Geosciences participated in a five-day field course held in the Girdiman River Valley, located in the Ismayilli region. The fieldwork was supervised by Dr. Guilherme Bozetti, Associate Professor at the University of Strasbourg (UNISTRA), Dr. Thibault Cavailhes, Associate Professor (HDR) at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), and Fidan Aslanzada, Oil and Gas Program Coordinator at UFAZ.

This fieldwork is regarded as one of the most demanding and comprehensive academic activities organized by UFAZ, considering its educational load, logistics, costs, and route complexity. The program covered petrology, mineralogy, sedimentology, depositional environments, and structural geology - the core disciplines of geological education at UFAZ.

The program lasted for five days, starting with a road trip from Baku to Lahij, where students stayed in a local hotel. During the trip, they visited the Shimali Perikishkul mud volcanoes, Oligocene-Miocene formations that represent the source rocks of the South Caspian Basin, and several locations along the Shamakha road to observe the geomorphology of the Greater Caucasus.

In the following days, students focused on the Girdiman River Valley, which is known for its exceptional outcrops of deep-marine basin sediments belonging to the Cretaceous-Paleogene flysch. The fieldwork concluded with a stop in Khanagah, within the Shahdagh Reserve, where participants studied Jurassic carbonate formations.

This field activity enabled students to apply their theoretical knowledge in real geological settings, develop teamwork and analytical skills, and gain valuable field experience essential for their future professional careers in geosciences.