Abstract. Modern tephra studies per se began almost 100 years ago (in the late 1920s) but the first collective of tephrochronologists, with a common purpose and nascent global outlook, was not formed until 7 September, 1961, in Warsaw, Poland. On that date, the inaugural ‘Commission on Tephrochronology’ (COT) was ratified under the aegis of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA). COT’s formation can be attributed largely to the leadership of Kunio Kobayashi of Japan, the commission’s president for its first 12 years. We were motivated to record COT’s heritage for posterity and also because the discipline of tephrochronology, including the study of cryptotephras, continues to grow globally at a significant rate. This is recognition of tephrochronology as both a unique correlational and age-equivalent dating method, and as a complementary method in other fields, such as volcanology, in which tephra research has been employed to develop eruption histories and hazards and to help understand volcano-climate interactions. In this article, we review the history of COT (which also functioned under other names, abbreviated as COTS, CEV, ICCT, COTAV, SCOTAV, INTAV) under the umbrella of INQUA for 53 of the last 60 years, or under IAVCEI (International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior) for seven of the last 60 years, including since 2019. We describe the development of the commission and its subsequent activities that include organising nine specialist tephra-field meetings in seven different countries, numerous conference sessions or workshops, and generating tephra-themed issues of journals/books or specialist internet documents or websites. The commission began to prosper after 1987 when key changes occurred, and it has blossomed further, especially in the past decade or so as an entire new cohort of specialists has emerged alongside new analytical and dating techniques to become a vibrant global group today. We name 29 elected officers involved with COT since 1961 and their roles, and 15 honorary life members. We also document the aims of the commission and conclude by evaluating its legacies and current and future work.
The international tephra research group ‘Commission on Tephrochronology’ and its activities – the first 60 years