Abstract
The paper describes climatic and tectonic effects on fluvial processes of East Anatolia. This study from the Muş Basin contains three alluvial terrace levels (T3-T1) ranging from 30–35 m to 3–5 m above the present Murat River in its middle section. In order to provide a chronology for the evaluation of the significant, effects of climatic changes and tectonic uplift, we used optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of the river deposits of the youngest (T3) and medium terrace (T2). The ages from these terrace deposits show that the T3 has formed approximately 6.5 ka ago, i.e., during the last part of the Holocene (MIS 1) and T2 has formed nearly 25 ka ago, i.e., during MIS 2 at the ending of the last glacial period. According to these results, it appears that the Murat River established its terrace sequences both in cold and warm periods. The variations in climate oriented fluvial evolution between the East Anatolia fluvial system and the temperate-periglacial fluvial systems in Europe may be the conclusion of different vegetation cover and melting thicker snow coverings in cold periods.
Highlights
River terraces have been investigated for a long time from different regions of the world in order to restructure Quaternary climatic and tectonic conditions
This paper aims to demonstrate the evolution of the terraces of the Murat River in East Anatolia using morphological analysis and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating
One is the Murat River, which follows the basin in the N-S direction, while the other one is the Karasu River, which drains the basin in E-W direction and joins the Murat River in the west of the basin
Summary
River terraces have been investigated for a long time from different regions of the world in order to restructure Quaternary climatic and tectonic conditions This is because fluvial terraces are important archives which record the traces of the environmental changes during the Quaternary and before. Bridgland and Allen’s model [2] implies that unstable climate transitions are relating terrace-forming incision, whereas Vandenberghe’s model [21] suggested three scenarios of accumulation-erosion processes in climate-oriented terrace sequences the keeping chances of this development. According to these models, cold and warm periods are considered as relatively steady conditions. Towards the ending of glacial periods, river accumulation intensified especially in fields where glacier melt waters discharge together with sediment mass importantly rise [8,22]
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