“I want to continue my training in geological sciences and dedicate my life to geology. My greatest dream would be to work as a researcher, although I also consider working in industry. One of my goals is to contribute with geological knowledge to the scientific community and to serve humanity by doing important tasks for its development”.
With these words, Victoriano defined himself in his curriculum when he first applied in 2018 for a PhD scholarship in Barcelona. After reading it, I called him by phone and arranged an interview. Even though he was in Granada (Southern Spain), finishing his second Master, Victoriano showed up the next day in Barcelona for the interview. I remember we had a rich conversation about geology and his expectations in this field. I immediately recognized Victoriano as an exceptional candidate. He said goodbye looking into my eyes with a noble and sincere look, telling me: “If you give me this grant, you will not regret it.” Victoriano obtained that scholarship, and for five years, we maintained a very intense collaboration. Without a doubt, he was one of the people who has marked my life, personally and professionally. Victoriano was someone who made the world a better place, turned our work into a source of pleasure and showed friendship as the best of values; a person impossible to forget.
Victoriano was born in Almoradí (Alicante province) on August 5, 1993, and died on March 9, 2023, together with two other young geologists, Óscar Molina (28) and Daniel Álvarez (30), in a fateful accident in a potash mine in Suria (Barcelona). At his funeral, I had the chance to meet his former high school teacher, Don Antonio Cabrera. Despite his grief over the loss, he expressed how proud he was that one of his students was pursuing his doctorate in Barcelona. He said that, in high school, Victoriano was not the kind of good student that all teachers wanted. However, it is usually those different free-thinking people who bring the greatest changes in the world around us.
Victoriano studied Geology at the University of Alicante, obtaining his degree in July 2016. He belonged to the second promotion of geologists at the University of Alicante and was to be the second doctor in Geology to come out of that university. He obtained an honourable mention in the final degree project: “Stratigraphy and Sedimentology of the Puerto de Rebate sector (San Miguel de Salinas, Alicante)”, directed by Dr Jesús Soria, friend and mentor of Victoriano.
Although Victoriano had a vocation for research, he pursued the Master’s Degree in Secondary Education in 2017 as it offered him a professional opportunity. While Victoriano got along well with everyone, his ability to connect especially well with the youngest individuals would undoubtedly have made him a great teacher. I remember the friendship he established with my children, Luis and Ana, during field campaigns in Hellín and Guadix, where they were his field assistants. While working on this Master’s degree, he found his first paid job as a geologist for the Gealand company, carrying out a heritage assessment of the outcrop of the Cretaceous-Paleogene limit of Agost (Alicante). He presented the results of this study at the X ProGeo Symposium under the title “First legal protection applied by the Autonomous Community of Valencia based on Geoheritage assessment: the K/Pg boundary at Agost (Alicante, Spain)” – a link to it is provided here. In 2018, he obtained his second Master’s Degree in Geology Applied to Mineral and Energy Resources, at the University of Granada, with the work entitled: “Study of the Moharque evaporitic series (final Miocene, Las Minas de Hellín Basin): Petrology, Geochemistry, Cyclicity and Magnetostratigraphy”, co-directed by Dr Alberto Pérez López, obtaining one of the highest grades.
During his student years in Alicante, he participated in promoting geology in the Geolodías of Alicante (Santa Pola 2013, Orihuela 2014, Agost 2016) and Murcia (Mazarrón 2016, Torre Pacheco 2017). In Barcelona, he volunteered in several meetings that aimed to promote Earth Sciences among young people, revealing his great altruism, generosity and dedication.
As a geologist, I would highlight his ability as a field geologist to resolve new outcrops and basins. Although Victoriano was an all-terrain scientist; he also enjoyed laboratory work (petrology, geochemistry, palaeomagnetism, micropaleontology). After his return from his three-month stay at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, with Dr Mónica Sánchez-Román, he became very scrupulous in following all the protocols to minimize the risk of errors caused by contamination, commenting to me: “In Amsterdam, I learned how to work in the geochemistry lab”.
Victoriano focused his thesis on the Neogene basins of the Betic Cordillera. He wanted to understand the continentalization processes of these basins from the sedimentary record. He published, as a first author, four articles, two of them in the journal Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoecology, entitled:
– Interevaporitic deposits of Las Minas Gypsum Unit: A record of Late Tortonian marine incursions and dolomite precipitation in Las Minas Basin (eastern Betic Cordillera, SE Spain).
– New constraints on the closure of the Betic Seaway and the western Mediterranean palaeoclimate during the Messinian Salinity Crisis from the Campo Coy Basin (SE Spain).
His other first-author publications are:
– Posible influencia marina y formación de dolomita bioinducida durante el Mioceno final en la Cuenca de las Minas, SE de España. Geo-Temas 18, pp. 181 – 184. Sociedad Geológica de España, 2021.
– Estratigrafía y Sedimentología del sector del Puerto de Rebate (Cuenca del Bajo Segura, SE de España). Revista Cidaris 33, pp. 57 – 66. Elche (Spain): 2021. ISSN 1134-5179.
He also co-authored the study:
– The elemental sulfur ore deposit of Salmerón: Las Minas de Hellín basin (Late Miocene, SE Spain). Boletín Geológico y Minero 133, pp. 135 – 161. IGME, 2022.
His two international publications represent relevant contributions to the geology of the Las Minas de Hellín and Campo Coy basins. They are an example of integrating field and laboratory data to solve complex problems. While finalizing other articles on the evaporites of the Granada basin and the Calasparra marls, he was also collaborating on other publications that were well-advanced. Victoriano was a member of the International Association of Sedimentology since 2018 and had participated in the 35th IAS Meeting of Sedimentology in Rome in 2019. He had also submitted two communications for the next IAS congress, to be held in Dubrovnik (Croatia) in June 2023. He was very excited about the upcoming congress and the defence of his doctoral thesis this summer, not only for him but also for his parents, María José and Victoriano, his brother Miguel, and his dear partner Marta. His PhD was a gift that he wanted to give them. Victoriano will not be physically present at the upcoming congress, but we will carry him in our hearts. A session on Evaporites will be dedicated to Victoriano and his two colleagues, Óscar Molina and David Álvarez, who died with him, as happened in the last European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna. I will be in charge of presenting his work and finalizing the volume of his thesis so that he can get the degree of Doctor posthumously, as the Rector of the University of Barcelona promised to his family during the tribute that the University gave to him on March 10.
Victoriano ended his PhD contract on November 31, 2022. On the following day, he was hired as a salt geologist by Potash company ICL Iberia. He felt proud of this transition as it offered him the opportunity to gain experience in the mining company, as he had already anticipated. It also allowed him to finish writing his thesis. However, his medium-term goal was to apply for a postdoctoral fellowship and continue his academic career. Death came to Victoriano by surprise, in the fullness of his life, doing his job as a geologist at more than 800m depth, in a mine. His loss has indescribably affected many people, which was evident at his funeral in Almoradí. As someone remarked, it was like a state funeral due to the solemnity of the act and the massive participation of family, friends, and colleagues.
Victoriano had his desk in room 242, shared by many PhD students. Due to his loss, this room has lost vitality, but we have all promised to keep his memory alive and take him as an example, keeping his spirit alive in the Department of Mineralogy, Petrology, and Applied Geology. We will continue working to progress in the knowledge of the Earth Sciences and improve this world, as was his wish. His parents and girlfriend Marta, devastated by the tragedy, have shown an exemplary attitude, with their serenity and generosity in these moments of sadness and pain. I congratulate them for raising such an exceptional human being. Working alongside Victoriano Pineda has been an enormous privilege. His joy, kindness and wisdom have left a lasting mark on us all. Without a doubt, his presence will always accompany us. As Dr. Ariana Carrazana said at his funeral, Victoriano’s friends and colleagues will keep his scientific and human legacy alive, and we will work together to avoid more tragedies like this.
Dr. Luis Gibert Beotas
Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Barcelona