Welcome to the National Earth Science Museum

Visit our Museum

The Museum is an ideal school excursion destination that keeps students captivated, focused and looking for more. Discover geoscience through our extensive display of world-class Namibian minerals & rocks and our superb Namibian fossil collection with highlights on Namibian mines and geoscience as an interesting and relevant part of our lives.

Aim of the Museum

The National Earth Science Museum aims to enhance knowledge and awareness of Namibia's geological and palaeontological resources through:

• Collection and preservation of Namibia's geological and palaeontological heritage, and
• Education of the public through exhibition, research and outreach.

Displays

Rocks & Minerals

Namibia is well known for its interesting geological history and rich mineral diversity.

One of the displays deals with the semi-precious stones of Namibia, and shows various facetted gems, and there is also an exhibit on dimension stone.

The varied and often unknown uses of minerals in various situations in our daily lives are displayed, by showing the raw minerals with the products produced with them.

These include:

• Geology in the kitchen
• Geology in the bathroom
• The use of minerals in cars

Mines in Namibia

A major share of the country's income is derived from mining, which is well documented in the museum. The economic mineral deposits of Namibia are represented by displays of various mines and exploration prospects:

• NamDeb Diamond Mining
• Tsumeb Polymettalic Deposit
• Kombat Copper / Lead / Silver
• Rössing Alaskite Uranium
• Navachab Skarn Gold
• Otjihase Copper / Pyrite
• Rosh Pinah Lead / Zinc
• Okoruso Fluospar

The center stage is taken by Namibia's most important commodity, the diamond, and includes explanations of the diamond mining along the coast and at sea. The world famous Tsumeb polymettalic ore body hosts some 226 minerals, 40 of which are unique to Tsumeb. A display on hydrocarbon exploration shows the impressive reserves of 2.0 trillion cubic feet of hydrocarbon gas in the off-shore Kudu Gas Fields in Southern Namibia. These reserves are enough to supply the entire country with electricity for 150 years.

Meteorites

The most extensive meteorite shower on earth is found in southern Namibia near the village of Gibeon. The meteorites are classified as octaherites and consist entirely of taenite and kamacite displaying the classical Widmanstätten structure of undergrowth. A recorded total of 77 pieces have been found to date and as they have almost identical compositions they are thought to have been part of one large 15 ton body. Eight big meteorites of the Gibeon Meteorite Shower are on display in the museum.

Fossils of Namibia

The fossil collections exhibit some famous finds such as:

The oldest fossils so far recognized in Namibia were primitive blue-green algae, which lived 830-760 million years ago. These algae formed vast amounts of stromatolites which are today found in the rocks of the Otavi Mountainland. The algae were crucial in producing an oxygen-rich atmosphere. A replica of Massospondylus, a prosauropod dinosaur that lived 200 million years ago is on display. Its fossilized remains were found in the Etjo Sandstone Formation in the Waterberg National Park in 1997.

Erythrosuchus is a thecodont, a group of reptiles from the Triassic Period. It lived 230 million years ago and was the largest creature of its day. It was found on Farm Omingonde and excavated in 1992. The museum also houses specimens of mammal-like reptiles, a group of animals which represent a clear evolutionary transition between reptiles and mammals.

Other palaeontological highlights

• Ediacaran fauna like Pteridinium, and oldest shell-bearing organism Cloudina
• 13 million year old Otavipithecus namibiensis, oldest fossil ape in Southern Africa
• Fossilized ostrich eggs from the Namib desert
• 17-19.5 million year old rodents, crocodiles, elephant, rhinoceros, giant hyraxes, giraffe ancestors

Museum Floor Plan

Opening Hours & Booking

Opening Hours:		Enquiries:
Mondays to Fridays		Museum Curator
08:00-13:00 and		Ms H. Mocke
14:00 to 17:00		Tel: +264-61-284 8391
		Email.Museum@mme.gov.na

Closed on weekends

Entrance is free of charge. For a guided tour, booking for the Museum is essential. Tours can be given to a range of school-aged groups to members of the general public. Duration of general school visits is approximately 40 minutes with a maximum group size of 50 to 60 students. When booking please email the following information to the Curator:

• School name
• Teacher contact and phone number
• Class level
• Approximate number of students
• Specific topics of interest
• Preferred dates and times

On receipt of your enquiry, we will contact you to organise a time for your booking.

Thank you for visiting us.