Field Trips
Pricing for field trips is a bit tricky. Please read info in table before making selections. Midweek trips are included in your registration fee. Trips on other days are available through either GSA or Asterya for a fee. When signing up via the GSA registration form, price is in US$. When signing up through Asterya, price is in Euro (€).
| Midweek Trips (Wed. only) |
Trips During meeting (not on Wed.) |
Pre- and Post-Meeting Trips |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Geological | Cultural | Cultural | Geological |
| register via GSA | register via GSA | register via Asterya | register via GSA |
| Ankara Melange Registrant: Free Registered Guest: US$50 Beypazari Trona Deposits Registrant: Free Registered Guest: US$50 Gerede Section, N. Anatolian Fault Zone Registrant: Free Registered Guest: US$50 Kızılcahamam Volcanics: Petrified Forest Registrant: Free Registered Guest: US$50 |
Ankara City Tour Registrant: Free Registered Guest: US$45 Hattusas Tour Registrant: Free Registered Guest: US$70 Beypazari Tour Registrant: Free Registered Guest: US$40 Gordion Tour Registrant: Free Registered Guest:US $40 |
Ankara City Tour 35 € Hattusas Tour 55 € Beypazari Tour 30 € Gordion Tour 30 € |
See Field Trips: Pre-meeting Post-meeting pricing in US$ as noted on descriptions |
 Field Trip Areas Map (475KB PDF) |
PRE-CONFERENCE FIELD TRIPS
1. Blueschists, Ophiolites and Suture Zones in Northwest Anatolia — FULL
Co-leaders: Aral I. Okay, Istanbul Technical, Istanbul; Donna L. Whitney, University of Minnesota, USA
Duration: 3 days, 1–3 Oct. Participants will arrive in Istanbul (Atatürk Airport); the field trip will start from Istanbul and end Ankara in time for the participants to join the welcoming party.
This field trip aims to show and discuss in a regional tectonic framework the occurrence and evolution of blueschists, eclogites and ophiolites exposed along the Izmir-Ankara suture zone in northwest Anatolia. The blueschists of the Tavsanli Zone display well-preserved high-pressure mineralogy and include a thick Mesozoic passive continental margin sequence, which is metamorphosed in lawsonite-blueschist facies during the late Cretaceous, and an overlying subduction-accretion complex with incipient HP metamorphism. The Cretaceous suprasubduction zone ophiolites with no apparent HP metamorphism rest tectonically on these blueschists and the subduction-accretion complex. Some of the highlights of the field trip include jadeite-chloritoid-bearing metapelites indicative of very low geothermal gradients, Ordovician jadeite-granite, aragonitized pelagic limestones and lawsonite-eclogites. A side trip will take the participants to the only Triassic eclogite and blueschist occurrence in the Alpine-Himalayan chain.
Itinerary:
- 1 Oct., Friday:
- Istanbul-Bursa, overnight in Bursa Karakaya Complex— Permo-Triassic greenschists and blueschists; unconformable Jurassic cover; Ophiolite along the Izmir-Ankara suture zone; blueschist metaclastic and metabasite rocks around Orhaneli.
- 2 Oct., Saturday:
- Bursa-Tavsanli-Eskisehir, overnight in Eskisehir Accretionary complex with aragonitized limestone, blueschist metabasite, metachert and underlying marble around Tavsanli; Triassic eclogite-blueschist and ophiolite north of Eskisehir.
- 3 Oct., Sunday:
- Eskisehir-Sivrihisar-Ankara Blueschist and lawsonite-eclogite around Sivrihisar. Transit to Ankara.
Participants will arrive in Istanbul (Atatürk Airport). The field trip will start from Istanbul on 1 October and will end in Ankara on 3 October 3, in time for the participants to join the Welcoming Party.
Fee: US$600 in single rooms, US$550 in double rooms
Maximum number of participants: 25
Minimum number of participants: 15
2. Active Faulting and Archaeoseismology of Western Anatolia
29 Sept.–3 Oct. — Canceled
POST-CONFERENCE FIELD TRIPS
3. Menderes Core Complex and Extensional Tectonics in Western Anatolia
9–15 Oct. — Canceled
4. North Anatolian Fault Zone (along the Çerkeş-Gölyaka segment)
9–12 Oct. — Canceled
5. Central Anatolian Accretionary Complex: Ankara Mélange
Co-leaders: Bora Rojay, Middle East Technical University, Ankara; Ender Sarifakioglu, Directorate of the Mineral Research and Exploration Institute, Ankara; and Yildirim Dilek, Miami University, USA
Duration: 2 days, 9–10 Oct. The trip will start from and end in Ankara.
The aim of this field trip is to introduce participants to one of the best examples of ancient subduction-accretion systems in the world and to the colored Ankara Mélange within it. The nearly E-W-oriented Tethyan subduction-accretion complex in Anatolia continues into the Sevan-Akera suture zone in the Lesser Caucasus and then into northern Iran and includes locally internally coherent blocks of tectonostratigraphic units ranging in age from Permo-Triassic to the lower Eocene. In Anatolia, this subduction-accretion complex delineates the Izmir-Ankara-Erzincan suture zone separating the Rhodope-Pontide continental block (specifically Sakarya) in the north from the Tauride and Central Anatolian crystalline complex (“Kirsehir block”) in the south. Some of the coherent blocks contain Triassic and Jurassic seamount and/or oceanic plateau fragments, Jurassic and Cretaceous ophiolitic complexes with MORB to island arc tholeiite geochemical affinities, calk-alkaline rocks, amphibolites and limestone units that are all embedded in a serpentinite and/or argillaceous matrix. Tectonic environment(s) and the processes of formation (i.e., tectonic, sedimentary, diapiric, etc.), particularly of the so-called Ankara Mélange, are not well understood and will be the subject of lively discussions on the field trip.
The excursion will take participants to the Upper Cretaceous basinal sequences resting over an ophiolitic mélange in the Memlik-Orhaniye, Temelli and Haymana regions south of Ankara, and then to the serpentinite matrix and seamount and ophiolitic blocks in the Ankara Mélange in the Elmadag, Kiliçlar, and Kalecik region northeast of Ankara.
The field trip will start from Ankara on 9 October and will end in Ankara on10 October.
Fee: US$175
Maximum number of participants: 25
Minimum number of participants: 20
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| Photo by Yildirim Dilek |
6. Cappadocian Volcanic Province
Co-leaders: Vedat Toprak, Middle East Technical University, Ankara; Erkan Aydar, Hacettepe University, Ankara
Duration: 3 days, 9–11 Oct. The field trip will start from and end in Ankara.
This field trip aims to show the unique features of Cappadocia (Central Anatolia), one of the geologically, culturally, and archaeologically richest and most diverse regions in Anatolia. Developed during the Neogene-Quaternary within a fault-controlled topographic depression in the hinterland of an Eocene collision zone, the Cappadocian Volcanic Province is characterized mainly by the eruption of widespread ignimbrite and felsic lavas accompanied by high-K dacitic and andesitic flows and intrusion of domes and plugs. The Erciyes, Hasandag, and Melendiz stratovolcanoes decorate the landscape as the major eruptive centers. This mainly volcanic, 300-km-long and 40–60-km-wide terrane was significantly reshaped by aeolian and fluvial processes over geological time, producing intricate erosional landmarks, such as fairy chimneys. The region was once the heart of the Hittite Empire (later an independent kingdom, 1900–1200 B.C.) and then a vast Roman province. Elaborate underground caves carved into soft tuffaceous rocks provided safe, multilevel underground cities protecting the early Cappadocians from invaders crisscrossing Anatolia. Large, early Christian communities thrived in Cappadocia, and their rock-hewn churches became a unique art form.
The Cappadocian Volcanic Province has attracted many earth scientists and archaeologists during the last few decades because of its rich natural and cultural history so intricately intertwined. The fascinating landforms and cultural features that developed in this landscape have their roots in the local geology. The excursion will focus on
- Volcanic eruption centers (polygenetic vs. monogenetic);
- Widespread ignimbrite occurrences and sedimentary sequences (lacustrine and fluvial) interbedded with volcanic products;
- Tectonics of the area especially for the Miocene-Quaternary period;
- Morphological-geomorphological features (erection of volcanic bodies, formation of fairy chimneys, valley development); and
- Geoarchaeological features emphasizing the effects of geology on the physical environment of ancient civilization centers and sites (such as underground cities and rock-hewn settlements).
The field trip will start from Ankara on 9 October and will end in Ankara on 11 October.
Fee: US$400 The fee includes: Entry fees to the local Museums, and over-night stay in 3-star hotels.
Maximum number of participants: 35
Minimum number of participants: 10
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| More field trip photos led by D. Perincek |
| Printable Program for this Field Trip |
7. Late Mesozoic-Cenozoic Stratigraphy of Southeast Anatolia and the East Anatolian Fault System — FULL
Co-leaders: Dogan Perinçek, 18 Mart Çanakkale University, Çanakkale
Duration: 6 days, 8–15 Oct. The trip will start from Ankara, and the group will fly to the city of Adiyaman in the morning. The trip will end in Hatay (the ancient city of Antioch), and the group will then return to Ankara.
This field trip aims to show the stratigraphy and structure of the Cretaceous through late Miocene autochthonous and allochthonous tectonic units on the northwestern edge of the Arabian platform and to display the structural architecture of the East Anatolian and Dead Sea fault systems in southeast Anatolia. Participants will also have ample opportunities to explore the historical and cultural artifacts embedded in the semi-arid landscape of this fascinating region.
The highlights of this trip include the Adiyaman strike-slip fault and the oil fields west of the Euphrates River, late Cretaceous-early Miocene fold and thrust belt and Cretaceous ophiolites on the Arabian platform, the Korudağ imbricated structure and folded thrust, the Commagene Nemrut Mountain archaeological site near Malatya, the Besni anticline and the East Anatolian fault zone near Gölbasi, the Aptian-Turonian Mardin carbonate sequence, and the Dead Sea fault zone in Hatay. Participants will visit one of the best Greco-Roman period mosaic and ceramics artifacts in the Hatay Museum before leaving for Ankara.
Fee: US$1,965
Maximum number of participants: 15
Minimum number of participants: 10