Welcome to the website of Frank Schönian

I am a geoscientist and passionate about photography. This is the website I designed for the scientific community as well as for the general public. It is currently under reconstruction in order to update its design to style sheets (css) and to provide new content.

Meanwhile you can either browse this old version of the page or visit my photography portfolio:

PAK. PHOTO.

If you want to see more of my photos, go to my profile at 500px:

500px.com/frankschoenian

"Such was decided in night and darkness by the Heart of the Sky, called Huracán. His first appearance is the lightening, Cakulhá. His second the thunder, Chipí Cakulhá. His third the reverberation, Raxa Cakulhá. These three form the Heart of the Sky.

…

Thereon they were destroyed and annihilated, those figures made of wood, and received the death. A flood aroused the Heart of the Sky, and huge waters fell on the pate of the creatures made of wood.

…

Liquid resin dropped from the sky. Then came the Ruler Owl, Xecotcovách, and teared out the eyes. The Big Bat, Camalótz, came and teared off the head. The Wrenching Jaguar, Cotzbalám, came and devoured the meat. The Tapir Tucumbalám came as well, broke and scrunched the bones and tendons, he trampled down and grinded the carcasses.

And that happened in punishment of not having commemorated neither their father nor their mother, not the Heart of the Sky, whose name is Huracán.

That’s why darkened the visage of the Earth, and a dark rain began, day-rain, night-rain."


(POPOL VUH, the 'Book of the Council' - CH 1.1: "The Creation"; after german translation from Quiché-Maya by W. Cordan, 1962)

I am geoscientist and working on the ejecta blanket (the "explosion rocks") of the Chicxulub impact crater on the Yucatán Peninsula. This is the 180 km impact crater produced by an asteroid or comet of at least 10 km, that struck the Earth 65 Million years ago and caused the catastrophic extinction of the dinosaurs and a lot of other animal species (the KT mass extinction).

Going to a remote area, finding rocks that you have never seen before and trying to read them,
although sometimes difficult, is fun!
Come and join some of my VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS:

Enjoy some more images, if you want: