During the first year of the PÜSKÜRÜM project, Dr. Iván Sunyé Puchol (Principal Investigator, PI), Rengin Özsoy (the PhD student of the project) and Dr. Efe Akkas (tukish collaborator) did a fieldwork campaign in the Central Anatolian Volcanic Province (CAVP, the study area). The team mapped and logged the tephrostratigraphy of the proximal deposits of the Hasandağ, Acigöl, and Erciyes volcanoes, while collecting pyroclastic samples for posterior lab analysis, including geochronology (Ar/Ar and U-Th-Pb methods for eruption ages) and glass geochemical analysis (major and trace elements measurements by EMP and LA-ICP-MS). The project was presented at the 1st MedGU Conference in Istanbul. Dr. Sunyé has disseminate the PUSKURUM project in Sapienza seminars and CIVIS infodays.
From the second year the PI has worked as part-time (50%) for family reasons (parenting), so the total duration of his MSCA contract was 3 years. A new fieldwork was focused on completing the mapping and sampling of CAVP proximal deposits. A new master’s student, Simge Kaya, joined the team to study the petrology of Erciyes. Additionally, Dr. Xavier Bolós, an expert in volcanic hazards, collaborated to collect eruption source parameters. Samples for radiocarbon dating (C14) were recollected as part of the geochronological work. During this period, Dr. Sunyé Puchol presented preliminary results at seminars in international institutions (e.g. Barcelona, Marseille and Ankara), and participated in outreach events like Earth Day Italy and the monthly Green World radio program, as well as organised a workshop about Anatolian volcanism during the INAQUA 2023 in Rome, where the PUSKURUM students has disseminated the project results. The PUSKURUM students also presented the project at the 75th Geological Congress of Turkey and at the EXCITE Conference 2023 (Granada, Spain). My teaching activities included lectures on volcanology and geothermal energy at Sapienza University, as well as co-organizing a CIVIS course on geochronology at CEREGE.
In the third year the team presented their latest results at major international conferences, including The Geoscience Paradigm in Potenza (Italy), and at the European Geoscience Union (EGU) General Assembly (Vienna, Austria), where findings from Hasandağ and Acigöl were discussed in an special session organised by Dr. Ivan Sunyé (
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU24/session/50185(si apre in una nuova finestra)). Laboratory work continued, with additional sample analyses in Glasgow and Zurich. The first research paper from the PÜSKÜRÜM project was published in the Bulletin of Volcanology, with two more papers submitted to Geology and the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. Media engagements included interviews with Catalan TV and EOS newspaper, and the European Researchers’ Night of Rome 2024 for further disseminating project findings. During this last year of the Marie-Curie, the PI won an extra 12-months fellow from Sapienza to keep working on the PUSKURUM project.
In the fourth year, Dr. Sunyé Puchol will expand on tephrochronological correlations using tephra from Black Sea cores, collaborating with the Oxford Tephrochronology group.The project aims to extend its impact through seminars and presentations at upcoming international meetings (4rd MedGU in Barcelona, and IAVCEI 2025 in Geneve), while also securing future funding and a tenure track position at Sapienza University through the development of a follow-up project, the ÇoraDrill.
