The “Loessfest 2026” international scientific conference, dedicated to multidisciplinary research into loess sediments, is taking place from 7 to 11 September in the village of Krapets. The forum is organised by the National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography (NIGGG) of BAS.

The event was opened with welcoming remarks by the Director of NIGGG, Assoc. Prof. Petya Trifonova; the Scientific Secretary of the “Climate Change, Hazards and Natural Resources” Division of BAS, Corresponding Member Prof. Daniela Jordanova; and the President of the “Loess and Pedostratigraphy” working group of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) – Prof. Z. Jary.

A total of 70 scientists from 14 countries are taking part in the conference, including Switzerland, Germany, France, Poland, China, Ukraine, India, Hungary, Romania, Brazil, Serbia, Turkey and others. The scientific topics covered at the forum span various fields: palaeoclimatology, geochemistry, chronostratigraphy, malacology, pedology, archaeology in loess regions, and others. During the conference, a number of renowned scientists will deliver presentations, the latest scientific findings will be presented, and topics will be discussed relating to the potential of loess-soil sedimentary sections as a valuable record of global and regional palaeoclimatic conditions during the Pleistocene, the alternation of warm and cold epochs and their link to past global atmospheric circulation.

The programme also includes a field discussion with visits to two sedimentary sections of the loess-soil complex in north-eastern Bulgaria – one in the village of Krapets and the other at the open-cast kaolin quarry near the village of Kolobar (Silistra region). During the conference, a number of scientific papers will present research on the Kolobar section, carried out as part of the LOEs CLIMBE project, funded under the MAPS programme of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) in which a team from NIGGG is partnering with Swiss and Romanian teams.

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