Example of Coastline Changes from the Last Glacier Maximum to the Present: Çanakkale Strait

Abstract

Climate change emerges as an important problem for the earth today. Although the negative effects of this problem are not directly reflected in the time we live in, it is revealed by the scientists working on the subject that it will be observed in human life for decades-centuries and will be observed in detail on the earth for thousands of tens of thousands of years later. This predicted climate change can be considered a normal situation when considering the time that has passed from the formation of the earth to the present, approximately 4.5 billion years (except that the difference between the reasons for climate changes in the past geological times and the predicted climate change is the human effect). The effects of Quaternary climate change can be observed on the earth both on a global scale and on a regional scale. As an example of global climate change, the continuous change of sea level can be given, and the best indicators of this change are geological/geomorphological structures such as marine terraces or submarine canyons observed on the coasts on the regional scale. On the local scale, stalactites and stalagmites observed in caves, lake sediments, deep sea sediments, glacial cores are among the best examples of climate change. In this study, the land-sea boundary (coastal line) changes of the coasts of the Çanakkale Strait, which is the southern branch of the Turkish Straits System, have been investigated, considering the sea level changes that show the climate change best in the last 25 thousand years. In this context, the coastal changes of the Çanakkale Strait coasts from the Late Pleistocene to the present are modeled using geographic information systems programs, by using different global and regional sea level change charts showing climate changes. The most striking of these new maps is the one from 20 thousand years ago. At this time, it is known that the global sea level is 120 meters lower than today and the deepest point of the Çanakkale Strait is around -113 meters today. Therefore, it is not possible to mention a Mediterranean-Black Sea waterway connection through the Çanakkale Strait at these times.