HOLOCENE LAKE EVOLUTION IN THE ELMALI BASIN, SOUTHWEST TURKEY (original) (raw)
The spatial coverage of paleoecological research from southwestern Turkey is expanded by reporting on a ca. 12,690 14 C yr BP (14,935 cal yr BP) proxy record recovered from the Elmalı basin. Four AMS radiocarbon age determinations, the litho-stratigraphic analysis of a lake bed core, and the analysis of subsurface sediment samples from 15 shallow auger holes across the basin document sedimentation patterns during the Holocene. Based on the widespread occurrence of Chara gyrogonite, and several species of ostracoda and gastropoda, the Elmalı basin was dominated by lacustrine and palustrine environments but was continually influenced by alluvial fan sedimentation. Contrasting stratigraphy in the Kara Göl and Avlan Gölü sub-basins is a result of basin morphology, and possibly hydrologic control by karst features, and sub-basin isolation due to alluvial fan development. The cyclical deposition of marl/lime mud, gyttja, and peat in the Kara Göl core is indicative of periodic fluctuations in water level across a broad shallow basin, whereas the continuous clay record observed at Avlan Gölü implies deep-water sedimentation within a plugged former karst collapse feature. Calcareous clay deposited between 14,935 and 11,180 cal yr BP signals the growth and expansion of paleo Lake Elmalı, which at its peak during the late Pleistocene, may have inundated over half of the of the 180 km 2 Elmalı basin. [
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