Reconstructing Early Pleistocene (1.3 Ma) terrestrial environmental change in western Anatolia: Did it drive fluvial terrace formation?


VELDKAMP A., Candy I., JONGMANS A. G., MADDY D., Demir T., SCHOORL J. M., ...More

PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY, vol.417, pp.91-104, 2015 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 417
  • Publication Date: 2015
  • Doi Number: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.10.022
  • Journal Name: PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.91-104
  • Keywords: Red soil, Surface calcrete, Colluvium, Stable isotopes, Palaeoenvironment, Turkey, PALEOENVIRONMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE, VOLCANIC DISRUPTION, GEDIZ RIVER, TURKEY, CLIMATE, PALEOSOLS, GENESIS, RECORD, VARIABILITY, CARBONATES
  • Akdeniz University Affiliated: No

Abstract

A terrestrial environmental reconstruction of an Early Pleistocene landscape from western Anatolia is presented. The basis of this reconstruction is a sedimentary stack comprising fluvial and colluvial slope deposits. Contained within this stack is a sequence comprising two massive laminar calcretes alternating with three reddish palaeosols. This evolutionary sequence is situated on top of a fluvial terrace staircase capped by a 1.3 Ma (Ar-40/Ar-39 plateau age) lava flow. The micro-morphological properties of the observed calcretes and reddish palaeosols combined with the stable oxygen and carbon isotopic composition of the carbonates suggest the alternation of three stable relatively warm-humid (vegetation rich) and two stable relatively arid-cool (bare surface) cycles. In addition, there is also ample evidence for landscape instability in between these phases causing local soil truncation and slope instability in an open grassland-shrub environment. These landscape instability phases match well with known fluvial incisional phases of the Gediz during this period. This suggests that climate-forced landscape environmental dynamics were of sufficient magnitude to drive fluvial terrace formation of the Early Pleistocene Gediz. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.