10th Türkiye Quaternary Symposium from ITU

The 10th Türkiye Quaternary Symposium, which brought together scientists from around the world in the field of Earth Sciences, was held at ITU Ayazağa Campus on 2-4 November. The symposium that focuses on the Quaternary period, the last geological period the Earth is in today, shed light on climate change and natural disasters.

The 10th Türkiye Quaternary Symposium (TURQUA-2022), organized every two years by Istanbul Technical University Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences, was held at Süleyman Demirel Cultural Center in Ayazağa Campus on November 2-4. The symposium hosted by ITU in its 250th year was attended by scientists from universities in Türkiye, as well as many countries including Czechia and Spain. In TURQUA-2022, a total of 62 oral and poster presentations were made in the light of the latest Quaternary research. TÜBİTAK BİDEB and Beta Analytic company supported the organization of the symposium.

Addressing the participants at the opening of the symposium, Secretary-General of ITU and Director of EURASIA Institute of Earth Sciences Prof. Dr. Ali Deniz stated that various topics will be discussed at the scientific meeting: “In this symposium, discussions will be held on a wide spectrum ranging from geomorphology to archaeometry, from biogeography to prehistory, from geology to climatology.” 

Prof. Dr. Tolga Görüm from the Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences welcomed the participants on behalf of the organizing committee: “Our expectation from this symposium is not only to be aware of each other’s scientific results, but also to contribute to cooperation, knowledge sharing, networking and encouragement of young researchers.”

“Türkiye’s geography is important for quaternary”

Prof. Dr. Hasan Nüzhet Dalfes underlined the need to give more importance to Quaternary studies in Türkiye: “Quaternary is not only a field of geology, it is a very important period in terms of the biocultural development of humanity. Türkiye is an important country for the Quaternary, considering her position as a bridge connecting continents. We live in a geography that has been used and changed extensively by humans throughout history. In this symposium, we are looking at the last 20-30 thousand years. We organized the first Quaternary meeting in Türkiye in 1988 at TÜBİTAK MAM in Gebze. When I came to the Technical University in 1992, we revived the Quaternary symposium with the help of the appropriate scientific environment and Prof. Dr. Okan Tüysüz. For many years, there was no scientific organization or association for Quaternary in Türkiye. Our efforts to join the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) finally paid off.” 

Prof. Dr. Tahsin Atilla Çiner announced on the stage the winner of this year’s “Summit Award”, which they have been giving for the last three years within the scope of TURQUA: The 2022 Summit Award was given to Prof. Dr. Dalfes for his pioneering role in the field of Quaternary.

At the TURQUA-2022 symposium, many topics such as historical mega landslides, rainfall extremes, Antarctic glaciers, quaternary climate models, traces of cosmic rays coming to Earth, the last ice age, pollen studies, caves, and archaeological settlements were discussed. Papers were presented on studies about many lakes, including Lake Salda, and mountains from Türkiye, as well as the Sea of Marmara. The earthquake history of the Northern Cyprus coasts, the fault lines in Iran and the formations in neighboring countries such as Lake Urmia were also examined. 

Click to access the web page of TURQUA-2022 Symposium.