Last Glacial - Holocene stratigraphic development at the Marmara Sea exit of the Bosphorus Strait, Turkey

Abstract

High resolution Chirp and Sparker data allowed definition and mapping of distinct seismic units in the shallow sediment record (~100 ms) acquired from the southern exit of the Bosphorus Strait; a dynamic depositional environment. The bottommost unit observed in the Chirp data (unit-3) is made up of marine-lacustrine sediments thinning seaward and onlaps the basement rocks which are represented by folded strata in the Sparker data, possibly lower to middle Pleistocene age. It is overlain by a series of prograding deposits along the shelf (unit-2) referring to sediment input from the northern sector depending on the water levels of the paleo Marmara lake’s during MIS 3. The uppermost deposits (unit-1) close to the Bosphorus Strait were represented by three separate subunits, unlike to relatively thin drape of sediments observed at the other places in the surrounding regions. The detailed definition of these subunits deduced from the closely-spaced reflection profiles and available radiocarbon ages helped to explain the history of the latest stratigraphic development depending on the connections between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. In addition to the previously proposed major conduits, which controlled the sedimentary deposition at the southern exit of the Bosphorus, namely the Bosphorus Strait and Kurbagalidere River, another submarine sedimentary pathway at the eastern bank of the strait’s channel seems to have delivered sediments directly into the basin.