This project will investigate the origin of a newly discovered travertine in the Oslo Rift. This is potentially the first time that travertine is found in mainland Norway. In the Sylling area west of Oslo, the travertine was discovered inside a hillside talus in 2025. The aim of the project is to understand where the carbonate came from, why it precipitated in the talus - and to what extent the host rocks (basalt and rhomb porphyry) were involved. Some of the motivation for the project is to understand natural processes that binds CO2 to carbonate minerals.
The project methods will include field mapping and documentation, detailed petrography, XRD, electron microprobe analyses, and isotope measurements (carbon, oxygen, strontium).
