The INQUA Loess Commission goes from Budapest to Beijing, and then returns to Europe (1991-2003)

Ian Smalley, Greta Smalley, John Howarth, Hugh Nugent Giotto Loess Research Group, Geography Department, Leicester University, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK (ijs4@le.ac.uk)
Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects. Herodotus

Abstract The INQUA Loess Commission existed from 1961 to 2003. Its history can be divided into three phases; it was initially very much an institution of Central Europe, but world-wide loess interests were eventually incorporated. In 1991 An Zhi-sheng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences became president, and it entered its third and final phase of existence. Several landmark events occurred in the third phase; eventually it contracted back to Europe, and was wound up (with all the other INQUA commissions) in 2003.
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The rich package of events in phase 3 suggests that long running commissions accumulate value and can contribute significantly to scientific endeavours. Time is required to build the interactions so critical to science. Keywords: INQUA Loess Commission; worldwide loess studies; Heidelberg/Bonn LoessFest; Hardcastle centenary; Moscow Loess/Carbon meeting; NATO Soil Collapse meeting; scientific communication

1. Introduction Loess research was encouraged and guided and influenced by the INQUA Loess Commission. INQUA, the International Union for Quaternary Research, correlated and organised research into Quaternary science, largely by the operation of commissions; groups of like-minded scholars and investigators. One of the most significant, and best recorded, of the commissions was the Loess Commissiondevoted to the study and investigation of loess sediments and soils. A study of the commissions is useful, not just for simple historical reasons after Herodotus, but because it is useful to see scientific endeavour in action, with a view to offering better provisions and proposals for scientific futures.

The Loess Commission started as a Subcommission of the Stratigraphy Commission in 1961, became a full commission in 1969, and was disbanded (along with all extant commissions) in 2003. The life of the commission has been divided into three phases (1); the first phase (1961-1977), when it was a small scale study group, and Julius Fink of the University of Vienna was president; the second phase (19771991) when it expanded from Europe and widened its scope of study, when Marton Pecsi of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was president, and the third phase (1991-2003) when there was consolidation and discussion and recording and the presidents were An Zhi-sheng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ian Smalley of the Giotto Loess Research Group of Leicester University. Phase 3 shows some signs of the community building of phases 1 and 2 having an effect and there were several major meetings. The time period includes four INQUA Congresses; the 13th in Beijing(1991), the 14th in Berlin(1995), the 15th in Durban(1999), and the 16th in Reno(2003). At the Reno meeting the whole structure of INQUA was refigured and the commissions were terminated, which provides a neat closed package for the study of the Loess Commission (the philately of Newfoundland effect).

Phases 1 and 2 have been discussed earlier(1), the current discussion concerns phase 3. 2. Beijing 1991. Phase 3 begins in China, at the 13th INQUA Congress in Beijing. INQUA time progresses from congress to congress, going forward in a series of four year leaps. Major decisions are taken at the congresses and new projects initiated. Marton Pecsi retired as president of the Loess Commission and phase 2, the expansion phase, ended. Phase 3 was to be a phase of consolidation and recording. The 1985 WPWG meeting, and then the Beijing 1991 Congress, re-established China in the leading position in loess science, and that was one aim achieved. As phase 3 progressed it was necessary to demonstrate that Pecsis two initiatives had been effective. A definitive position in geo-engineering needed to be established, and the loess in Russia, and the loess literature in Russian, needed to be appreciated. Also the Loess Commission was required to play its part in INQUA in general, and to contribute to the overall aims of Quaternary science. The loess activity at the Beijing congress included a symposium to honour John Hardcastle(2). It was the centenary of Hardcastles observation of the link between climate and loess deposition; Hardcastles description of the

loess as a climate register and the recognition of significant layers in the loess deposit at Timaru was, in effect, the beginning of loess stratigraphy. Stratigraphy was the major activity in loess research in 1991. There was progress on the engineering/practical aspects of loess research and in April 1994 a NATO supported conference on collapsible soils was held at Loughborough University; this turned out to be the major move in the engineering direction and provided a significant basis for further studies on hydrocollapse and subsidence- by far the most widespread and damaging of the loessic engineering problems. A major review on subsidence, with some emphasis on Russian work, was published in 1994(3). Also in 1994 there was a conference at Royal HollowayUniversity of London on Wind blown sediments in the Quaternary record(4). At this meeting Ludwig Zoeller proposed that a major meeting should be held to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the naming of Loess by Karl Caesar von Leonhard in Heidelberg.

3. Berlin 1995 The 14th INQUA Congress was held in Berlin in 1995. The proceedings volume for the NATO Conference of 1994 was available at Berlin INQUA and demonstrated major progress

on the Pecsi Practical Research front (5). Also Berlin provided an opportunity for discussion of the Zoeller idea for a major meeting to celebrate 175 years since Karl Caesar von Leonhard had named loess, in which to discuss all aspects of loess. The Zoeller conference began to be seen as an opportunity for a major loess meeting which could celebrate all the achievements of the Loess Commission. It was becoming apparent that such a conference might be timely as there were already traces of ideas of reorganisation of the INQUA structure which would disturb the commission system. 1995 also saw the publication of the GeoJournal volume on Loess-Palaeosol investigations edited by Pecsi and Velichko(6);this printed the INQUA programme and listed symposia 54-56 in the Loess and Fossil Soils section. In the early part of 1999 the LoessFest was held in Heidelberg and Bonn(7). This was the meeting proposed by Zoeller in 1994 and it brought together loess scholars from all over the world to discuss a large range of loess topics. It started in Heidelberg and delegates were able to visit the type section of loess at Haarlass, and take away a specially packaged souvenir sample of the actual material. The LoessFest was a true celebration of loess, and to demonstrate the forward looking nature of loess scholars it was the launch meeting for the Dirtmap project(8).

4. Durban 1999 The Durban INQUA Congress came just after the LoessFest and provided the opportunity for some further loess discussions. It was becoming obvious that a major reorganisation was about to be started in the main INQUA structures and preparations were made for the closing of the Loess Commission. An Zhi-sheng handed over the presidency to Ian Smalley. The Dirtmap project had been initiated at LoessFest and the major meeting for this project was held in Jena in October 2000. This allowed worldwide participation in aeolian research and delegates came from Australia, China and the United States, and very much met the Pecsi aim of encouraging world-wide loess study A major volume was produced(8) and Loess Letter 51 carried reports. The worldwide nature of loess research was becoming more visible and more appreciated and in 2001 the Loess Commission participated in the SEQS meeting in Ukraine. This was the first major geoscience meeting in Ukraine since the International Geological Congress in 1984, and it enabled scholars to obtain an excellent view of the remarkable Ukraininan loess deposits. Loess Letter, in particular, supported this meeting (see LLs 45 & 47) and it was a very successful meeting. The field excursion travelled

east from Kyiv through Lubny round the south-eastern end of the Dnepr reservoir and back to Kyiv via Cherkassy. At this meeting Andrei Dodonov and Ian Smalley planned the Moscow Loess & Carbon meeting for 2003. After the main meeting a small sub-group examined the Pecherskaya Lavra- the Monastery of the Caves, which is built in and on the loess beside the Dnepr in Kyiv. The extensive tunnel systems built by the monks are made in the loess and provide a very impressive underground loess construction. There are various systems of tunnels and cellars and underground constructions in the loess of eastern Europe, such as in Lublin and Sandomierz in Poland- a topic for some future, detailed study.

5. Reno 2003 At the Reno meeting all extant commissions were disbanded and an era of loess research and scholarship was ended. A small sub-committee was set-up to pursue the one outstanding task. Julius Fink had set up a project to map the European loess, and Gunter Haase in Leipzig had been placed in charge. This project had proved remarkably difficult because of organisational, linguistic, cartographical and political problems. The mapping region spread across parts of Europe which were in considerable upheaval for the

last third of the 20th Century. In 2003 the map project was unfinished but considerable material existed, mostly in store at the Saxon Academy in Leipzig. The map sub-committee was charged with the task of facilitating a completion, a closure, of the map project. The active members were Ludwig Zoeller and Klaus-Dieter Jaeger, they, handily positioned relative to Leipzig, would encourage completion. And completion was achieved, the map was published(9) with considerable commentary attached, and a special issue of Loess Letter[#59] was produced to mark the occasion. It was fitting that the map should be completed in Leipzig since this was where Grahmann(10) produced the first detailed map of loess in Europa (reproduced in LL59). 6. Commentary The early Loess Commission was essentially a small group of scholars looking at loess in Central Europe, it really was a Central European enterprise(1). In 1977 the scope became larger, more technological and more international. The Western Pacific Working Group represented the acme of internationality(11) and the last hurrah was the Loess/Carbon conference in Moscow in 2003(12). The history of the Commission demonstrated the value of a large, long-lasting Commission within the INQUA structure. Time and space allowed many interactions to develop, and

interactions promote science and discovery. The action of the Western Pacific Working Group facilitated the return of Chinese scholars to the world community after the disruption of the Cultural Revolution and the long running newsletter provided a link for the widespread loess community. References 1. Smalley,I.J., Markovic,S.B., OHara-Dhand,K. 2010. The INQUA Loess Commission as a Central European enterprise. Central European Journal of Geosciences 2, 3-8. 2. Smalley, I.J. 1983. John Hardcastle on glacier motion and glacial loess. Journal of Glaciology 29, 480-484. (reprinted in Loess Letter Supplement 23, November 1988 for 13th INQUA at Beijing). 3. Rogers, C.D.F., Dijkstra, T.A., Smalley, I.J. 1994. Hydroconsolidation and subsidence of loess: studies from China, Russia, North America and Europe. Engineering Geology 37, 83-113. 4. Derbyshire, E. (ed.) 1995. Wind blown sediments in the Quaternary record. Quaternary Proceedings 4, pp.1-96.

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5. Derbyshire, E., Dijkstra, T.A., Smalley, I.J.(eds.) 1995. Genesis and Properties of Collapsible Soils. (NATO ASI series C, Maths.& Physical Science 468) Kluwer 424p. 6. Pecsi, M., Velichko, A.A.(eds.) 1995. Loess-paleosol and paleoclimatic investigations; principles, methods and criteria. GeoJournal 36, pp.115-294. 7. Derbyshire, E. (ed.) 1999. Loess: characterization, stratigraphy, climate and societal significance (LoessFest 1999), Proceedings pp.1-272. 8. Derbyshire, E. (ed.) 2003. Loess, and dust indicators and records of terrestrial and marine palaeoenvironments (Dirtmap) database. Quaternary Science Reviews 22, pp.1813-2052. 9. Haase,D., Fink,J., Haase,G., Ruske,R., Pecsi,M., Richter,H., Alterman,M., Jaeger,K.D., 2007. Loess in Europe- its spatial distribution based on a European loess Map, scale 1: 2,500,00. Quaternary Science Reviews 26, 1301-1312. 10. Grahmann, R. 1932. Der Loss in Europa. Mitteilungen

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der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde Leipzig 51, 5-24.(maps reprinted in Loess Letter 59 April 2008). 11. Smalley, I.J., OHara-Dhand, K. 2010. The Western Pacific Working Group of the INQUA Loess Commission; expansion from Central Europe. April 2010). 12. Velichko, A.A., Dodonov, A.E., Catto, N.R. 2006. Loess and palaeoenvironments across Eurasia: dedicated to the memory of Marton Pecsi. Quaternary International 152/153, 1-201. Central European Journal of Geosciences 2, 9-14 (reprinted in Loess Letter 63, 25-31,

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