Abstract Oil and gas activities in Romania cover a long time interval from antiquity until the present day. Most importantly, the year 1857 represents the starting point for industrial production in Romania when three world oil firsts were achieved: the first country with a crude oil production formally recorded in domestic and international statistics (275 tons); the first petroleum industrial refinery, located in Ploiești, with a processing capacity of 7.5 tons/day; Bucharest became the first city in the world to have public illumination, using lamp oils. After 1857, the evolution of the oil and gas industry in Romania was controlled by important historical events: World Wars I and II, the communist regime (1945–89), and the post-communist period (1990–today).

Abstract In the 1930s, Alfred Bentz, August Moos and Karl Krejci-Graf were among the most noteworthy petroleum geologists in Germany. Being scientific modernists, they systematized the search for oil, introducing modern exploration methods. All three, at some stage, worked for the German state on providing the petroleum needed by the German military during World War II. The three colleagues seem to have had an amicable relationship. They were, however, very different. Bentz was not a member of the National Socialist party but obviously lent his expertise to the regime; as did Krejci-Graf, who, although also was not a party member, was a member of the SS, whereas Moos, due to his Jewish background, was murdered in January 1945 in the concentration camp of Buchenwald. This paper endeavours to sketch the lives of the three colleagues, highlighting their relationship and the interconnectedness of contemporary moral issues with professional and scientific demands.

Abstract The siege of Petersburg and Richmond during the American Civil War in 1864–1865 provides a stellar example of how geology can affect military operations and thus the course of history. During the Union drive to take the Confederate capital, they used Virginia’s broad tidal rivers on the Atlantic Coastal Plain as supply lines for their huge army. During the siege, both sides took advantage of the unconsolidated Cenozoic sediments of the Coastal Plain to create a new style of combat—trench warfare—which would be taken to horrifying extremes in World War I. This trip visits seven sites of both historic and geological significance in the Petersburg area.

Abstract This book, generated under the auspices of the Geological Society of London’s History of Geology and Hydrogeological Groups, contains 20 papers from authors in the UK, USA, Germany and Austria. Historically, it gives examples of the influence of groundwater on battlefield tactics and fortress construction; describes how groundwater was developed for water supply and overcome as an obstacle to military engineering and cross-country vehicular movement by both sides in World Wars I and II; and culminates with examples of the application of hydrogeology to site boreholes in recent conflicts, notably in Afghanistan. Examples of current research described include hydrological model development; the impact of variations in soil moisture on explosive threat detection and cross-country vehicle mobility; contamination arising from defence sites and its remediation; privatization of water supplies; and the equitable allocation of resources derived from an international transboundary aquifer.

Abstract This field trip provides an overview of geological features in southwestern Missouri that are related to the American Civil War and to human culture. This includes the geology and history of the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield (where the second important battle of the American Civil War was fought on 10 August 1861), Zágonyi’s Charge (25 October 1861), the Battle of Springfield (8 January 1863), and the gravestones and monuments of the National Cemetery in Springfield in which many of those who fought at Wilson’s Creek and other Civil War conflicts are buried. Other stops include the Springfield Underground and the quarries and facilities at what was once the town of Phenix (which, along with Carthage, Missouri, was the home of some of the largest dimension-stone quarries west of the Mississippi River); and a reconstructed mill site in Point Lookout, just south of Branson. Most of the field trip involves outcrops, quarries, and bedrock composed of the Mississippian Burlington-Keokuk limestones (undivided), providing numerous chances to examine outcrops and products made of limestone and chert.