Loess is formed by accumulation of aeolian dust, and the processes that control loess formation and its post-depositional alteration are closely related to global hydrologic cycle, atmospheric circulation, regional tectonic and glacial activity, and climate conditions. Therefore, loess is the valuable archive for paleoclimate and paleoenvironment reconstructions. In recent years, loess studies have been largely improved in the aspect of both identifying its significance in deep past of Earth history and uncovering its extensive global distribution. Given this background, the 2022 INQUA Loessfest conference was organized by INQUA Loess and Pedostratigraphy Working Group and Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGG-CAS), and held online from 20th to 23rd August, 2022. The 2022 INQUA LoessFest conference focused on the recent achievements and future prospects in various aspects of loess and aeolian dust studies, including modern processes, geologic records and palaeoenvironmental and landscape analyses, loess and humn habitability, modeling and recent technical progresses. There are 158 registered representatives from different countries, and because it was a fully online virtual meeting, even a larger audience has attended the conference as well. In summary, 125 abstracts were submitted, including 7 invited keynote speeches, 57 oral presentations and 32 poster presentations. Prof. Shiling Yang, President of the INQUA Loess and Pedostratigraphy Working Group and Deputy Director of IGG-CAS, chaired the welcome and closing sessions of the conference. Prof. Thijs van Kolfschoten, INQUA President from Leiden University, delivered a speech in the welcome session to introduce the conference and express his welcome and gratitude to the participants. Prof. Zhengtang Guo, INQUA Vice President and Academician of CAS, highly appraised the success of the conference in the closing session, and placed great emphases on the future loess and paleoenvironmental studies. The keynote speeches covered several recent hotspots of loess studies. Prof. Zhisheng An reviewed the recent advances in Chinese loess studies. Prof. Fahu Chen introduced loess deposits in Central Asia and their paleoclimatic implications. Prof. Weijian Zhou expounded the potential of 10Be in geomagnetic tracing studies. Prof. Majie Fan introduced the mid-Cenozoic loess deposits covering a vast area of western USA. Prof. Gerilyn S. Soreghan introduced the loess and dust in Permian Pangaea. Prof. Slobodan B. Marković discussed the synchronicity between IRD events in Northern Atlantic and grain size variations of the Serbian loess during the last million years. Prof. Thomas Stevens reviewed the Neogene-Quaternary loess sources of Eurasia. The participants shared their latest researches and actively discussed with each other, to exchange ideas in a friendly climate in the conference. The conference brought together the latest developments in loess studies, and marked the groundbreaking achievements in this field. It is notable that on the one hand, the time scale of loess studies has been further expanded from the Quaternary to the Permian. On the other hand, loess studies have been more closely integrated with habitability of the Earth for human society. A large number of archaeological researches presented in this conference have revealed that the Eurasian Loess Belt has been creating many “initiates” in the evolution of human civilization. The Loessfest, which is usually held every four years, is one of the traditional activities of INQUA Loess and Pedostratigraphy Working Group, formerly known as Loess Focus Group. The 2022 INQUA Loessfest was a fully online virtual meeting for the first time. Another change to the Loessfest in this year was that there held the Loess Early Career Researchers (ECR) workshop on 15th to 19th August, right before the main conference. The ECR workshop acted as a professional development workshop, and brought the young scientists and students all over the world together to learn from senior scientists, especially about the newly developed methods in loess studies and inter-disciplinary approaches. In this year, five lectures of different topics were given by Dr. Jan-Pieter Buylaert from Technical University of Denmark, Dr. Pieter Vermeesch from University College London, Dr. Gabor Ujvari from ELKH, Hungary, Dr. Samuel Albani from University of Milan, and Dr. Huayu Lu from Nanjing University. These inspiring lectures introduced the recent advances in geochronological methods, provenance studies, geochemical proxy indicators, dust modeling, and quantitative paleoclimate reconstructions. Thirty-two ECRs from eight different countries/regions registered and actively participated in the interactive discussions related to these lectures. More than one hundred audiences joined in the online lecture each day. It even blew our minds in the first day, because we never expected so many people. In order to expand the impact and help ECRs who are interested in loess studies but missed the workshop, the recording of these lectures will be uploaded and made available online in this year. Under the well-prepared organization of the conference committee, the 2022 INQUA LoessFest conference were successfully held, as well as the ECR workshop. Although the conference has ended, its broad impact in the international academic community is continuing. Its future outcomes will include two special issues that are currently organizing. One special issue will be published by Quaternary International, the official journal of INQUA, and have 18 potential contributions. The other issue with 21 potential contributions will be published by Quaternary Research. More importantly, this conference has brought the international communities together in this complex and volatile world situation. To be sure, the success and fruitful outcomes of the 2022 INQUA LoessFest conference will strengthen the academic influence and strongly promote the advancement of loess studies in the future. A photo collection of some participants in the 2022 INQUA LoessFest conference
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