Who is İhsan Ketin, the Father of Geology?

Atatürk wanted the state he had founded to be built on the foundations of modern education and accordingly Strive for the development of an education model. In this sense, he focused on his studies to support the development of students by receiving Western education and to raise educated generations.

Perhaps many people have not heard of one of these students, or have not cared or investigated. İhsan Ketin is the founder of the modern science of geology in Turkey, and he is also the teacher of the esteemed geologists whose names we have often mentioned together with the earthquake. Although he took his place at the top of the list of important scientists in Turkey as a result of the trainings he received and the studies he had done in Europe, many people still do not know him. This is actually “Despite years of warnings, why are we still not getting smarter?‘ answers the question.

There were two factors that determined İhsan Ketin’s life.

One of these elements is his love for Erciyes, another is his love for Erciyes. In Turkish youth, where Mustafa Kemal hopes his emphasis on education. His love for nature, which started by examining the stones of Erciyes as a child, gave him eyes that knew how to look at the mountains, hills and nature of Turkey for 55 years. “My love for geology started in my primary school years.İhsan Ketin expressed his interest in geology with incredible love.

one of his favorite thinkers. Friedrich von Schilerof “The artist must look upwards towards his own dignity and the rules that guide him, not downward towards his personal happiness and needs. He should try to create the ideal from the combination of the possible and the necessary. He said that his words were taken as a life principle.

The teachers who met him in his education life touched an important place in İhsan Ketin’s life.

A true republican teacher. Yümnü Tolgay, the teacher of İhsan Ketin, who was described as a teacher, tried to instill Atatürk’s principles and reforms in all students in Kayseri Primary School. In fact, İhsan Ketin, who never forgot the mark his teacher left on his heart, would invite him to the TUBITAK Science Award ceremony that he would receive in 1981.

In fact, it would not be wrong to say that the line of İhsan Ketin’s life was guided by the right people who met him at the right time. Just like his teacher, Kayseri Governor Ali Vefa Bey, who led him to take the boarding scholarship exam at Kayseri High School, where he attended. And Yunus Kazım Könü, the director of Kayseri High School, who encouraged him to take the foreign scholarship exam of the Ministry of National Education. He must have seen the ore in it.

He learned that he would be sent to Germany for science education when he won the Physics-Chemistry teacher.

Ketin, who saw his name in the list of students studying abroad when he learned about the school he won for teaching in Istanbul, never went to Istanbul and entered the autumn of 1932. He was among the 9 people sent to Europe. “In my upbringing contribution of the state and nation has been great. The thought of what should I do or pay for it throughout my professional life affected me.” İhsan Ketin, unaware that he started a great era for Turkey, received valuable training in Germany. In 1934, he started his graduate studies at the University of Berlin. Afterwards, Ihsan Ketin, who was also worried about the chaos of Berlin, decided to go to Bonn.

a famous tectonic in Bonn, Hans Cloos to Ketin “the truth hidden in the rocks” the only way to find and extractgo to natureHe taught that. Ketin, “In order to know nature, especially in earth sciences, it is necessary to study in nature. If you want to climb every rock, climb a mountain, look at the stone and understand what it is, you will endure difficulties to appreciate nature. It has mountains, hills, cold and heat. It is necessary to observe tirelessly and then evaluate what you see according to your knowledge.He also summarizes how earth science should be done.

Scientists are not trained like trees grow.

In June 1938 ‘Über die Tectonic und den Vulkanismus der Gegend von Bad Bertrich’ He completed his doctoral thesis (On the Tectonics and Volcanism of the Bertrich Spa Environment). Then he returned to his homeland and started his assistantship at Istanbul University, Faculty of Science, Institute of Geology. Ketin, who started to work in October 1938, was born within the borders of the Ottoman Empire and received a doctorate. He was the first geologist.

MENTE et MALLEO (The Mind and the Hammer)

After returning home, he adopted the inscription ‘Mente et Malleo’ hanging on his chair at the Geology Institute in Bonn as a principle in his professional life. Shortly after returning to the country Tercan Earthquake on 21 November 1939, followed by Erzincan Earthquake on the night of 28-29 December it happened. Ketin, for these earthquakes ‘From 1939 onwards, earthquakes came one after another. Each time there were fractures, slips and collapses in the field. These were important as they showed the mechanism of shell movement. In that respect, I focused mostly on the changes these factors made on the earth. he was saying.

Celal Şengör, one of his students, ‘in fact, Ketin’s first paleotectonic work in Turkey was the study of the Alemdağ granodiorite in the east of the Bosphorus, which he completed before enlisting in the military in 1940.’ He explains that he translated a book on military geology.

Ketin’s article, refuting the known facts, was published in the 36th volume of ‘Geologisehen Rundschau’.

Celal Şengör explains the importance of this article as follows: ‘Big Being one of the first publications about strike-slip faultsIn addition to its features such as containing various ideas that can be considered as pioneers of plate tectonics and forming the basis of current views on Turkey’s neotectonics, it also has a thermic significance as it is the first document revealing the existence of the North Anatolian Fault.‘

İhsan Ketin, in his work, claims to have moved towards the west and ‘Anatolian blocHe concluded that there must be a structure similar to the North Anatolian Fault in the south of Anatolia, with the idea that the mass he named ‘must be bounded from the south as well as from the north.

His students also discovered the East Anatolian Fault line.

Celal Şengör for these works “The May 22, 1971 Bingöl earthquake destroyed the Anatolian Block, which Ketin thought should have happened 2-3 years ago. The East Anatolian Fault, which is Turkey’s second largest strike-slip fault, was discovered as a result of its occurrence on a structure resembling the North Anatolian Fault. It was no coincidence that two of the four geologists who shared the honor of discovering this structure were Ketin’s students.” says.

Although his article was considered unimportant in the country, he was awarded an award in Germany for this work.

To Ketin, Germany on February 26, 1988awarded to the world’s greatest geologists for his article. Gustav Steinmann Medal gave. İhsan Ketin, on the other hand, said:Posts stay in the cornersHe criticizes the lack of interest in science in our country with some bitterness. Unfortunately, this indifference to geology in our country brings with it the loss of many lives, as seen today.

He spent the years 1950-1951 at John Hopkins University and continued his studies in America for a while. Later, he entered the newly established Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Mining as a professor. in 1953 Swiss geologist Franz Rösli He emphasized the strike-slip character of the North Anatolian Fault and compared this structure to the San Andreas Fault in California, which has similarities.

He adopted the principle of “looking not to believe something, but to disbelieve”.

The problem that bothered Ketin the most between 1953 and 1959 was the age and tectonic position of the Central Anatolian crystalline massifs. In 1951, Sir Edward Bailey and James Mc Callien from Ankara University put forward a hypothesis about the metamorphic mass.. Accordingly, this mass is a nappe coming from the north and floating on the ophiolitic mélange just southeast of Ankara.

The views of Bailey and Mc Callien are quickly accepted in the world of geology, but İhsan Ketin “Looking not to believe in something, but not to believe” has adopted the principle of science. To check this hypothesis, he starts a 1/100,000 mapping study around Yozgat. The conclusion he draws from his studies is that the massif is located below the ophiolite, not above it. This result leads him to his second great discovery: The Anatolian crystalline axis (Menderes-Kırşehir Mesifs) is an extremely young structure and completed its metamorphic evolution in the late Cretaceous early Tertiary period.

His 1969 article titled “About the North Anatolian Fault” is his most detailed work on this structure he discovered.

In his article, which went to America in 1975 and published in 1976, Ketin making a comparison between the San Andreas and North Anatolian Faults.continued its scientific efforts uninterruptedly after 1977. More than ninety original articles, translations and textbooks have been published.

İhsan Ketin is highly respected in the geology community, whether at home or abroad. At the Ketin Symposium organized by the Turkish Geology Institute in 1981 “Hamit Nafiz Pamir Service Award” has given. In the same year, TÜBİTAK “Science AwardKetin was awarded with various awards by Istanbul Technical University and Mineral Research and Exploration Institute. Ketin, who was selected as an honorary member by the “Geological Society of London” in 1984, was awarded the Gustav Steinmann Medal in 1988. In 1988, Ketin received an honorary doctorate from Bonn University and became an honorary member of the American Geological Society in 1988. He was given an Honorary Membership of the Bulgarian Geological Society in 1990.

“I tried to reveal what nature creates. If you ask why did you try so hard, I knew it as a duty to myself.

According to this beautiful representative of the republican generation, who considers himself indebted to the nation and dedicates his life to paying this debt without question, it is important for some people to be science and for others to be rich immediately. Ketin, who completed his scientific task with this aspect by establishing a solid team, He established a “ekol”, With his discovery in 1948, however, We lost our important value in the name of Turkish science in 1995, which was awarded in 1988, The teacher of most of the professors we see on television nowadays is an important scientist who has spent a lifetime teaching people how science should be done.

He warned all governments, he could not listen to his word.

Ihsan Ketin, Although he warned all governments not to establish industrial zones and settlement plans on the North Anatolian Fault Line, he kept the warnings. was not taken into account. Especially TUPRAS Ketin, who warned againstDo not install in the Gulf” he insisted, but his words were not heard again. Erzincan and Adapazarı He also said over and over that it should not be established in its current places.

Although İhsan Hodja tried to reveal the faults in our country and raise awareness of the people on the ground throughout his life, he could not listen to anyone. Ketin received geology education young republican mentality Maybe things would have been different today had he lived.