THE LATE-QUATERNARY GEOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF THE ELMALI BASIN, SOUTHWEST TURKEY

The spatial coverage of paleoecological research from southwestern Turkey is expanded by reporting on a ca. 12,700 yr BP proxy record of environmental change. A high-resolution paleoenvironmental record was developed using relatively simple biogeochemical analyses of lake sediments recovered from Kara Göl in the Elmali basin. The paleoecological research was accompanied by the textural, compositional, and paleontologic analyses of sediments from fifteen auger holes ranging up to 10.7 m in depth across the Elmali basin. Sediments recovered from Kara Göl and the Elmali Basin record a series of environmental changes consistent with the development of an alkaline lacustrine environment in the basin. Facies relationships also document changes in depth and size of the ancestral lake. During the late Pleistocene cold dry climate in the Elmali basin, the lake was deeper and inundated a larger area of the basin compared to modern times. Lake fluctuations during the Holocene were also accompanied by the influx of alluvial sands from the ancestral Akcay Valley. The deposition of lacustrine mud is periodically interrupted by the influx of alluvial sands on distal fan lobes. The record at Kara Göl represents one of the oldest continuous records recovered from this region. Post-glacial warming during the early and middle Holocene resulted in the formation of peat. Beginning at ca. 4750 BP an increase in effective precipitation resulted in re-expansion of the lake until approximately ca. 2850 BP. At this time the water level dropped and the lake became a marsh. By ca. 1550 BP higher temperatures and greater evaporation resulted in the deposition of carbonate rich marl. Marl deposition ceased, and modern environmental conditions were established within the last millennium.