Availability of sedimentary and volcanic rock deposits on Northeastern Turkey as concrete aggregates

Turkey has large aggregate deposits; however, these deposits cannot be used effectively due to a lack of controls. This can lead to fatal errors, as in the 6 February 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquakes. The main motivation of this study is to investigate the availability of existing and new aggregate deposits as concrete aggregates in northeastern Turkey. Thus, the quality of aggregates in this region will be studied comparatively. This research was carried out with aggregate samples taken from 30 different rock quarries in 10 different provinces in this region of Turkey. First, the locations of 30 crushed rock aggregates were identified, and their petrographic, mineralogical, physical, geometric and durability properties were determined. Fifteen different test procedures were applied to 30 crushed rock samples. It was concluded that these rocks are generally sedimentary rock types and that 18 of these 30 samples are of limestone origin. To obtain high-strength concrete, in addition to quality cement, the aggregates used must also be of high quality. The use of aggregate resources mentioned in this study for building concrete will contribute to the production of high-strength concrete. These samples, which generally have sufficient physical, mechanical and durability properties, meet the limitations of the standards much better than concrete aggregates. High-statistical-performance regression equations were obtained for the physical and durability properties.