Pleistocene valley incision, landscape evolution and inferred tectonic uplift in the central parts of the Balkan Peninsula – Insights from the geochronology of cave deposits in the lower part of Crna Reka basin (N. Macedonia)

Abstract

Although the general geomorphology is reasonably well understood, not much information is available on the incision rates of rivers and related tectonic uplift in the central parts of the Balkan Peninsula. Caves in the lower part of Crna Reka drainage (N. Macedonia) provide the possibility to reconstruct the Neogene-Quaternary evolution of this area, as previous research has identified two major cave development phases: one related to Pliocene-Early Pleistocene basin infilling and establishment of lacustrine environments, and a subsequent cave development phase related to valley incision due to draining of the lacustrine systems and tectonic uplift.Here, we present new geochronological data obtained by U-Th dating on speleothems and cosmogenic nuclide burial age determination of clastic cave sediments, that provide time constraints on the Pleistocene karst and valley evolution, and an insight into the related tectonic uplift. The obtained cosmogenic nuclide burial age (2.1 ± 0.5 Ma) of the clastic cave sediments from Temna Peštera – Dragožel, further supports previous results on placing the onset of the draining of the Pliocene lakes in Macedonia in the Early Pleistocene. The similar timing obtained for the downstream and upstream parts of Crna Reka drainage suggests that the draining was more likely initiated by regional uplift, rather than headward erosion related to subsidence in the Aegean Sea. The Middle to Late Pleistocene age of the dated speleothems agrees well with the existing conceptual model for karst and landscape evolution in the area. The cumulative valley incision rates based on these radiometric data show an increase towards the present, with values of <0.1 m/ka in Early Pleistocene, increasing to ∼0.2–0.5 m/ka in Middle Pleistocene, and up to 1 m/ka in Late Pleistocene. They are lower than the measured uplift rates in the area (1.1–1.2 m/ka), and mostly overlap with the range of GPS-based vertical deformation rates in the Hellenides. Higher Middle to Late Pleistocene uplift rate is inferred in the downstream part of Crna Reka, an area in the Vardar zone bounded by seismogenic faults, than in the upstream part, at the easternmost edge of the Pelagonian massif.