CARPATHIAN BALKAN GEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (CBGA)
A non-governmental, international scientific, non-political, and non-profit-making union of geoscientists working in the Carpathian-Balkan and surrounding area. Affiliated to the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) as a regional organization.
WHAT IS THE CBGA?
The Carpathian-Balkan Geological Association (CBGA) is a non-governmental, international scientific, non-political, and non-profit-making union of geoscientists working in the Carpathian-Balkan region and the surrounding areas.
AIMS
The Carpathian-Balkan Geological Association (CBGA) aims to promote and encourage collaborative cross-border fundamental and applied geological research, as well as training and specialization in the Carpathian-Balkan realm. This concerns all the fields of geosciences, their environmental implications, and other related disciplines. To accomplish its aims, CBGA organizes a congress every four years by one or several country members, establishes Working Groups focused on joint projects of specific scientific interest, stimulates and runs discussions on crucial geological issues (geological processes, nomenclature, terminology, methodology, etc.), and publishes various scientific materials (congress proceedings, maps, monographs, etc.).
The official CBGA journals are Geologica Carpathica and Geologica Balcanica.
PREVIOUS CBGA MEETINGS
The Association was founded as the “Carpathian Geological Association (CGA)” in 1922 at the XIII International Geological Congress in Brussels. The establishment of this association was the result of the personal initiatives and efforts by R. Kettner (Czechoslovakia), J. Nowak (Poland), G. Munteanu-Murgoci (Romania), and V. Petkovic (Yugoslavia). The CGA aimed to bring together geologists working in the Carpathian area.
The first Congress of the Association was held in Poland in 1925, the second in Romania (1927), and the third in Czechoslovakia (1931). The successful work of the Association was interrupted a few years before the Second World War. The Congress series restarted in 1958, and since then, the organization has been uninterrupted.
After WW II, the Association, following the suggestions of Czechoslovak and Romanian geologists expressed during the XX International Geological Congress in Mexico (1956), extended its activities, and new country members were involved. Bulgaria, Hungary, and the USSR (Ukraine) joined the “Carpathian-Balkan Geological Association” (CBGA), followed by Albania, Austria, Greece, and Yugoslavia.
CBGA Congresses list
• I Congress (Lvov, then Poland, 1925).
• II Congress (Bucharest, Romania, 1927).
• III Congress (Prague, then Czechoslovakia, 1931).
• IV Congress (Kiev, then U.S.S.R., 1958).
• V Congress (Bucharest, Romania, 1961).
• VI Congress (Warsaw and Krakow, Poland, 1963).
• VII Congress (Sofia, Bulgaria, 1965).
• VIII Congress (Belgrade, then Yugoslavia, 1967).
• IX Congress (Budapest, Hungary, 1969).
• X Congress (Bratislava, then Czechoslovakia, 1973).
• XI Congress (Kiev, then U.S.S.R., 1977).
• XII Congress (Bucharest, Romania, 1981).
• XIII Congress (Krakow, Poland, 1985).
• XIV Congress (Sofia, Bulgaria, 1989).
• XV Congress (Athens, Greece, 1995).
• XVI Congress (Vienna, Austria, 1998).
• XVII Congress (Bratislava, Slovakia, 2002).
• XVIII Congress (Belgrade, Serbia, 2006).
• XIX Congress (Thessaloniki, Greece, 2010). Abstract book
• XX Congress (Tirana, Albania, 2014). Volume 1, Volume 2
• XXI Congress (Salzburg, Austria, 2018). Abstract book
• XXII Congress (Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 2022); Abstract book
ORGANIZING STRUCTURE
The directing bodies of CBGA are the Board and the Council. The Board consists of the President, the Vice President, the Secretary General and the Previous President of the CBGA. The Board is the governing body of the Association between two congresses.
The Council consists of one National Representative of each member country of CBGA who elect the President and the Secretary General. The National Representatives are elected by the collective members of each member country. “The Council has to supervise all activities of CBGA, accept, postpone or reject proposals and to adopt resolutions … The Council meets at least once in two years … The Council meetings are charged by the CBGA President or the National Representative of the host country”.
CBGA National Committees are elected by the collective members of each member country and are responsible to keep the geoscientists of the member country informed on CBGA activities.
Working Groups are an important element of CBGA. They are consisted of scientists from two or more member countries who are working in common projects of special scientific interest. The Working Groups organize their activities and elect their respective co-ordinators by themselves. Working groups present the result of their work during the congresses and submit an activity report, at least once.
ACTIVITIES AND PERSPECTIVES
Reviewing the previous congresses, it is obvious that the geosciences in the Carpathian-Balkan region had much to gain, as new ideas and methods, modern trends and techniques, along with a new generation of renowned geoscientists arose. The XIX Congress of CBGA (CBGA 2010) held in Thessaloniki (Greece) marked a real peak, as shown by the number of participants (800) and the high level of scientific contributions. The advances continued during the successful XX Congress of CBGA held for the first time in Albania, at Tirana in 2014. More than 550 participants coming from 42 countries presented 470 contributions, which were published in two volumes. The tradition of high scientific value and interest in the event continued during the XXI CBGA Congress held in the beautiful city of Salzburg, Austria, with more than 330 participants and contributions organized in 19 scientific sessions. Three plenary speakers presented recent advances in major fields and important input on future research directions. The 22nd CBGA Congress, which marked the 100th Anniversary of the CBGA, was held in the Roman vestiges-rich town of Plovdiv (September 7-11, 2022). About 330 researchers from over 30 countries attended this meeting during the last months of the Covid pandemic period. These accomplishments suggest that promising advances will continue in future CBGA activities, thus solidifying the long-term tradition of the CBGA congresses as one of the best geoscience events in Europe.
Beqiraj, A. and Uta, A., 2014. GEOLOGICA CARPATHICA, DECEMBER 2014, 65, 6, 432
http://www.geologicacarpathica.com/data/files/files/misc/GC_65_6_p432-Tirana.pdf
Neubauer, F., 2018.
https://www.geologica-balcanica.eu/sites/default/files/articles/02_Neubauer_Geol_Balc_48-1_2019.pdf
Peytcheva, I., Ivanova, R. 2022
https://doi.org/10.52321/GeolBalc.51.3.43
PUBLICATIONS AND ACHIEVMENTS
The two official journals of CBGA, Geologica Carpathica and Geologica Balcanica, are gaining increasing interest from the geological society in the region and beyond.
Two additional groups of publications are published by CBGA and the national organizing committees or partners of the member countries: (a) congress and symposium proceedings, including field trip guides; and (b) results of the collective work of Standing Commissions substituted by the Working Groups. Digital editions are also produced. As a result, in the past years geological maps, explanation books, monographs, tables with comparative nomenclature, etc. were published. For example, the Commissions on Tectonics, Petrography, Metamorphism, Sedimentology, Geochronology, Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology compiled and printed important generalized maps (in scale 1:1,000,000) of the region. The Geophysical Commission has also largely contributed to the knowledge of the Earth crust and upper mantle of the region.
The 135 full peer-reviewed papers of CBGA 2010 were published in two volumes (at the Scientific Annals of the School of Geology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), while all abstracts were published in a special volume of Geologica Balcanica. Over 470 short and extended abstracts were published in the two special issues of the Albanian journal Buletini i Shkencave Gjeologjike for CBGA2014 (link above). In addition, five field trip guide books was published and distributed to about 150 participants for the XX CBGA Congress in Tirana, Albania. The abstract e-book of CBGA 2018 can be downloaded from Geologica Balcanica (link above), whereas the field guides of most excursions of the XXI CBGA Congress are published in Berichte der Geologischen Bundesanstalt and are also available for interested people.
RELATIONSHIP WITH IUGS
The Carpathian-Balkan Geological Association is affiliated to the IUGS as a regional organization. An annually report of the CBGA activities was sent to IUGS Secretariat at the end of each year. The webpage of the CBGA is reciprocally linked with that of the IUGS.
OFFICERS
The CBGA is governed from Cluj-Napoca (Romania) by the Board with the following members:
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Calin TAMAS, President of the CBGA and ex officio President of the CBGA 2022 Organizing Committee.
• Asist. Prof. Dr. Alexandra TAMAS, Secretary of the CBGA and ex officio Secretary General of the
CBGA 2026 Organizing Committee
• Acad. Prof. Dr. Mihai Ducea, Vice-President of the CBGA and member of the CBGA 2026 Organizing Committee
• Prof. Dr. Irena Peytcheva, Past President of the CBGA
The information includes data from Grubić (2006) and Christofides (2010).