We started off our morning by visiting the University of Canakkale to learn about the geology of the Big Peninsula. We learnt about Geological Sequence, Seismicity, Minerals, Geothermal resources, History, and Tectonic Activity. They showed us a sitio (stratigraphic) diagram, there are 7 main layers on the Biga Peninsula; including Metamorphic Basement Units, Metamorphic and Olistostromal Sequence, Carbonate Rocks, Ophiolitic Rocks, Biga Peninsula Magmatic Complex, Neogene Marine-Terrestrial Sediments, Basalt Alluvium and Slobe Materials. Next we learnt about the Ayvacik Earthquake swarm 2017, which hit the Assos, the city we were headed to later that evening. They taught us about the distribution of ore deposits around the Biga Peninsula, with industrial minerals, such as quarts, silica, feldspar, clay, marble, lignite and many more. They also taught us some natural history, first about the endemic fish that lives in the chemically toxic and incredibly hot Tuzia creek, due to the Geothermal Field underneath, and finally about Mount Ida, the mountain of the Mother Goddess, Cybele, also the location of the goddesses offering bribes to Paris. A perfect segway to out next activity, a trip to Troy.
We first learnt the historical background, taught by Evelina and Nate, to support the geological talk given by Chris and Dana. Troy was an ancient and important city of Anatolia spanning back to 3000BC up to the 12 century AD. It was one of the first known settlements in western Anatolia having nine different strata of cities built on top of each other. After a city was destroyed either because of the earthquakes since it’s a highly seismically active region of turkey or a fire, the ruins of the city were leveled and the survivors built on top of that same area. A reason for such a huge life time of this city is in fact the geography and geology of the location. Because Troia was once located on the coast of the Aegean sea and it was the only passage to the rest of Anatolia, it was a very economically rich region to settle on. The legend of the Trojan war is an important myth to Western culture and recent excavations of the archeological site show some evidence that this may even be the same city from Homer’s Iliad but nothing has been confirmed.
For over two millennia, scholars have tried to figure out where the battle of Troy took place of if it even happened. After all, most of the evidence was based on the book the epic the Iliad which was passed down orally through generations before written down centuries later. However, recently there has been geomorphic and sedimentary evidence that suggests that the events in Iliad may have been plausible.
The group of John Kraft, George Rap, John Luce and Ilhan Kayan (from Izmir) have been systematically documenting land changes and drilling in the regions where the possible harbor of Troy, location of the Greek camp, and other geographic areas that had been described in the Iliad since 1977. They noticed that the way the river channels flowed, the older shells where more likely to be transported seaward and younger shells more rarely transported landward. Which meant they had to carbon date with the younger mollusks.
The bay of Troy includes the Kara Menderes (Scamander Floodplain) to the northwest and Dumrek (Simons floodplain) to the east west. Over time, the channel flowed from the east and deposited sediment into the shallow-marine muds and eventually filled the ancient Troia Bay. The bottom to top layers are as follows: Mollusks, Forams and Ostracizes. By comparing the ages of the fossils, they discovered that by looking at the bronze age strata it matched the geographic description depicted in the Illiad.
After our lessons on Troy and the sedimentation of the site, we dropped off our tour guide Mustafa, and hit the road again. After some more sing-alongs and conversations we got to the next site of geothermal hot springs. We started walking up the road side stunned by the different patterns and formations, all wandering off in different directions before getting called over by either Professor Henderson, Professor Pysklywec, Omir, or Barisse each teaching us about different aspects of of the site. The site was full of iron based minerals and rocks, volcanic rocks and hot springs. The site was produced by a minor fault nearby. These minor faults developed during the collision of the Arabian and Anatolian plates. It is believed by the researchers at the University of Canakkale that it is the heat coming from the shearing of the tectonic plates that was causing the hot springs on the site, although our professors have a different hypothesis: they believe that there is a magma chamber deep underground heating the water at the site. Professor Henderson and Professor Pyskylwec doubt that the frictional energy from the shearing is sufficient for heating the water to ~573 K. After giving us a preliminary overview of the site, they began to test our knowledge and guide us to a better understanding of the site. We discussed the possible reasons for the toxicity of the water and its implications for the surrounding area. After that we learnt about the formation of volcanic rocks, and the primary elements at the site, specifically iron. At the site we also got to see the creation of exotic minerals by the hydrothermal alteration of volcanic rock. The site is also particularly interesting because of the mix of structural geology and vulcanism.
After spending the afternoon at the thermal hot springs, we got back on the bus to head to our hotel in Assos, we stopped to look at the amphitheater and then spent the rest of the night unwinding, playing cards, working on homework, and talking about the incredible day we just had.
