Cappadocia, Anatolian Plateau
30 November – 04 December 2023
Participation Fee:
- Student: 500 EUR (shared room) / 600 EUR (single room)
- Academic: 600 EUR (shared room) / 700 EUR (single room)
- Professional: 700 EUR (shared room) / 800 EUR (single room)
Leader: Attila Çiner, Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences, ITU, Istanbul, Türkiye
This four-day field trip will take place in Cappadocia, in the middle of the Anatolian Plateau, famous for its volcanism, unique landscape and unusual rock formations. The trip will start in İstanbul, and along the way to Ankara, we will have several occasions to see the surface ruptures related to the 1999 7.4 Mw earthquake that devastated İzmit town and surroundings. On the way to Cappadocia, we will also have the opportunity to visit the Tuz Gölü (Salt Lake) Fault and several other interesting geological formations beautifully exposed in the south of Ankara
The development of the Cappadocia landscape dates back to the Late Miocene epoch (circa 10 million years) when volcanoes spread pyroclastic deposits over an area of 20,000 km2. The volcanism continued for millions of years, laying down thick and colourful ignimbrite layers. The Cappadocian landscape's evolution starts with gently sloping plateaus, which are then dissected, usually along cooling fractures, to form mushroom-like structures known locally as "fairy chimneys". Humans used these volcanic formations for several millennia to build cave houses (troglodytes) and even underground cities. Kızılırmak River, the longest fluvial system of Türkiye, also deposited numerous terraces because of the Anatolian Plateau's continuing uplift.
Several stops are planned to appreciate the beauty of the landscapes and learn about their uplift, incision, and erosion rates. We also plan to visit the Taurus Mountain Range, only 100 km south of Cappadocia, and see glacial moraines and alluvial fans cut and offset by the Ecemiş Fault Zone. Cosmogenic surface dating of the alluvial fans allows for calculating slip rates and recurrence intervals of the Ecemiş Fault. Dating glacial moraines also gives insight into paleoclimate reconstructions since the Last Glacial Maximum, 20,000 years ago.
The field trip guidebook will be available for download in early November 2023. The itinerary will include the following stops:
Day 1 (Thursday, 30 November 2023): Departure from the conference venue at ITU, Istanbul, to Ankara at 11:00
- North Anatolian Fault stops along the road.
- Dinner stop on the road.
- Arrival at the hotel in Ankara around 21:00.
Day 2 (Friday, 01 December 203): Departure from Ankara to Cappadocia at 9:00
- Central Anatolia geology highlights: ophiolites, volcanics, continental red beds, and other sedimentary units.
- Tuz Gölü (Salt Lake) Fault Zone / Salt Lake geotouristic visit.
- Lunch at Orhan Ağaçlı Restaurant (Aksaray town).
- Cappadocia Volcanic Province volcanics (Hasandağ Volcano, monogenic volcanoes, maars, etc.)
- Arrival in Ürgüp (3-night stay at the hotel). Dinner at the hotel
Day 3 (Saturday, 02 December 2023): Cappadocia geology
- Balloon flight (optional): very early morning departure at 6:00 and back at 9:00.
- Field trip departure at 10:00.
- Ürgüp fairy chimneys and Ignimbrite Stratigraphy at Red Valley.
- Uçhisar-Göreme towns.
- Lunch at Göreme.
- Kızılırmak River fluvial terraces and incision rates.
- Avanos and potery-making shops.
- Zelve open-air museum.
- Paşabağ fairy chimney formation process and erosion rates.
- Dinner at the hotel.
Day 4 (Sunday, 03 December 2023): Mt Aladağlar
- Departure at 9:00 (1-hour visit): Ürgüp-Derinkuyu underground city (45 min).
- Derinkuyu-Çamardı (Mt Aladağlar) (1 h).
- Alabalık Restaurant (1:30 h).
- Ecemiş Fault (1:30 h).
- Emli Valley (glacio/fluvial deposits) (2 h).
- Back to Ürgüp (2h (Mt Erciyes) depending on alternative roads).
- Dinner at the hotel.
Day 5 (Monday, 04 December 2023): Departure after breakfast from Ürgüp to Kayseri airport (1 hour)
- Morning departure from Kayseri to Istanbul.
- Tickets should be bought well in advance using Turkish Airlines or Pegasus Airlines.
- The alternative airport is Nevşehir (equal distance to Cappadocia hotel but less frequent flights and only Turkish Airlines operating).
Optional Field Trip: Türkiye devastating earthquake zone (February 6th, 2023)
05 December 2023
Participation Fee:
- Student/Academic/Professional: 120 EUR (shared room) / 150 EUR (single room)
Leader: Attila Çiner, Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences, ITU, Istanbul, Türkiye
This is an optional one-day field trip to see the February 6th, 2023 Türkiye devastating earthquake-related morphologies (>8 m offset). For more information, see Special Session.
The itinerary will include the following stops:
Day 1 (Tuesday, 05 December 203): Departure from Ürgüp to Gaziantep
- Early Morning departure from Ürgüp to Gaziantep.
- Visit to Kahramanmaraş and Gaziantep towns. We will have several stops on the way to observe the fault-related morphologies.
- Stay at a hotel in Gaziantep (dinner at the hotel).
- Return tickets (Wednesday, 06 December morning from Gaziantep to Istanbul) should be bought well in advance using Turkish Airlines.
Seismotectonics of the East Anatolian fault and location of the 6 February 2023 earthquake sequence of Kahramanmaras. Focal mechanisms are Harvard CMTs and fault traces from the EC-Funded APAME Project (2003 – 2007).
