Plateau Of Anatolia Research Articles

Influence of the interannual variability of the Kuroshio Extension on the Mediterranean trough in the cold season

The impacts of the Kuroshio Extension (KE) interannual fluctuation on the Mediterranean trough (MedT) and associated Euro-Mediterranean climate in wintertime are analyzed in this study. It appears that when the KE index is positive (corresponds to a stable KE state with sharp sea surface temperature front and subsided oceanic eddies), the MedT is observed to be stronger in the west of its climatological position, resulting in a colder condition to the west of the Black Sea and more precipitation in the East Mediterranean and Anatolia Plateau. The opposite atmospheric pattern holds when the KE index is negative (unstable KE state). The empirical orthogonal function analysis is performed on 500-hPa geopotential height to obtain the dominant modes of MedT. The results show the KE index is significantly correlated with the intensity and zonal displacement of MedT, with correlation coefficients of 0.57 and 0.40, respectively. The low-frequency Rossby wave activity and high-frequency eddies are revealed as the prominent contributors to this co-variability between the KE and MedT. The upward turbulent heat flux transport from the ocean to the atmosphere strengthened by the stable KE activates the Rossby waves propagating upward and westward to the MedT region, contributing to approximately 30% of the MedT deepening. Meanwhile, the KE-driven Rossby waves intensify the background baroclinicity to the north of the Mediterranean Sea and thus enhance the transient eddy activity, consequently leading to another 20% of the MedT amplification via the eddy–mean flow interaction. The findings highlight the impacts of the KE state on the meteorological conditions in the Euro-Mediterranean region, which can potentially optimize the forecast accuracies of the MedT and associated Euro-Mediterranean climate variability.

Major tectonic features and geodynamic setting of the Black Sea Basin: Evidence from satellite-derived gravity, heat flow, and seismological data

The origin and development of the Black Sea Basin (BSB) remain controversial. In this study, we determined the main tectonic features of the BSB using satellite gravity, heat flow, and seismological data. Positive gravity anomalies are observed in the arc region due to high-density material, while negative gravity anomalies are seen in the trench region owing to the mass deficiency and sediments. The trench region has a relatively low heat flow anomalies along the Black Sea coasts.The Moho depth increases from 18.11 km in the Eastern Black Sea Basin (EBSB) to 51.83 km in the Eastern Anatolia Plateau (EAP) with an average of 34.13 ± 6.15 km. The lithosphere thickness changed between 78.48 km beneath Anatolia and 120.57 km below the EBSB with an average of 99.17 ± 8.17 km. The low heat flow and Moho temperature values indicate that the lithosphere is strong and cold beneath the BSB. The numerical results, therefore, provide evidence for southward subduction of the Tethys oceanic lithosphere below the Anatolian plate during the late Mesozoic-Cenozoic. Considering all geophysical and geological data, we conclude that the Black Sea Basin represents a relict basin, rather than a back-arc basin.

Assessment of dominating aerosol properties and their long-term trend in the Pan-Third Pole region: A study with 10-year multi-sensor measurements

Abstract The Pan-Third Pole (PTP), stretching from Eastern Asia to Middle-central Europe, has experienced unprecedented accelerated warming and even retreat of glaciers. Absorbing aerosols reduce snow and ice albedo and radiative forcing, consequently enhancing a great melting of snow cover and ice sheet in the PTP. Employing the 10-year (2007–2016) space-based active and passive measurements, this study investigated the distribution, optical properties and decadal trends for dominating aerosols at a seasonal scale in the PTP divided into six sub-regions. Results showed that the sub-regions of PTP were mainly dominated by dust, polluted dust and elevated smoke. The Taklimakan Desert (TD) and the Iranian Plateau (IP) were dominated by mineral dust, accounting for 96% and 86% of the total aerosol extinction while the Central Europe (CE), Indo-China (IC) and Anatolia Plateau (AP) were dominated by the mixture of the dominating aerosol types. The mean aerosol extinction coefficient (MAEC) showed an obvious variability depending on the sub-regions and a tendency of decreasing with an increase in the topographic height. The strongest extinction layer (>0.1 km−1) mainly occurred below 4 km and the weak extinction layers (>0.001 km−1) were mainly distributed between 5 km and 8 km, indicating pronounced vertical transport in the region. The decadal trends of columnar aerosol optical depth (AOD) showed a relation with the contributions of the dominating aerosol types. For example, significant upward or downward trends of total aerosol loading in the IC region were driven by elevated smoke while the AOD trends of total aerosol loading for the CE, the AP and the IP were driven by the dominating aerosol types. The Tibetan Plateau (TP), the cleanest region in the PTP, has been regularly exposed to polluted air masses with significant amounts of absorbing aerosols. Therefore, understanding the dominating aerosol types, properties and decadal trends in the PTP region will contribute considerably to assessing their effects on radiative forcing, climate change, and even snowmelt and glacier retreat.

Impact of climate variability on the surface of Lake Tuz (Turkey), 1985–2016

Lake Tuz is a hypersaline lake located on the Central Anatolia plateau. The lake is one of the most important wetlands in Turkey, due to its unique ecosystem and biota, but it has been degraded due to the loss of most of its water-covered area. This study analyzes the changes at the surface of Lake Tuz over the past 32 years and discusses the relationship between this change and climatic factors. This study was made in two parts: (1) surface changes of the lake during the period 1985–2016 were evaluated based on satellite images, and (2) the relationship between surface change and climatic factors was studied using standardized precipitation index (SPI), Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), and Erinc aridity index (EAI). Even though standardized spring precipitation at Lake Tuz Basin have not revealed any statistically significant long-term trend during the study period, it tended to decrease apparently during a long period from the year 2001 to 2013. This drought period was also evident in the series of 12-month PDSI during the 2002–2009 periods along with the years of 2012 and 2013. It is detected a statistically significant negative relationship between the salt-covered areas and EAI (r = − 0.63) in the long term (1985–2016). For the first period prior to the 2000s, the relationship between EAI and the salt-covered area was weaker (r = − 0.46), mostly because the lake was not significantly affected by the lack of precipitation yet due to the sufficient groundwater level. Since about 2000, groundwater withdrawals, rising temperatures, and severe and more frequent droughts strengthened the relationship between the lake’s salt-covered area and EAI (r = − 0.88). Precipitation records of Lake Tuz Basin showed a significant negative relationship with the indices of North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Arctic Oscillation (AO), and winter North Sea Caspian Pattern during the study period. The persistence of NAO and AO indices in a positive phase over the last 20 years has partly explained the decrease in the water-covered area observed in the lake.

Tracing Transcontinental Sand Transport: from Anatolia–zagros To the Rub' Al Khali Sand Sea

We used petrographic, heavy-mineral, and geochronological signatures of sand-sized grains to document an exceptional case of long-distance sediment transport dominated by eolian processes in a hyperarid climate. Feldspatho-quartzo-lithic orogenic detritus shed by the Anatolia Plateau and Zagros Mountains-including carbonate, chert, volcanic, metabasite, and ultramafic lithic grains with a rich epidote-amphibole-pyroxene-garnet heavy-mineral suite-was carried to the Arabian-Gulf foreland basin via the Euphrates-Tigris-Karun fluvial system and other rivers draining the Zagros, and blown inland by dominant Shamal winds to reach well into the Arabian foreland. Sediment dispersal over a cumulative distance of up to 4000 km took place in multiple steps, involving extensive eolian reworking of older deposits during lowstand stages of the Pleistocene before final accumulation in the Rub' al Khali sand sea. The siliciclastic fraction of Gulf beaches changes southeastwards from litho-quartzose carbonaticlastic and quartzose north of Qatar to quartzo-lithic carbonaticlastic along the Trucial Coast, but invariably contains chert, volcanic, and metabasite lithics, together with epidote, pyroxene, amphibole, and garnet. Dune sand inland is progressively enriched in quartz until composition becomes feldspatho-quartzose, whereas the heavy-mineral assemblage remains virtually unchanged. Beach and dune sands of the Gulf and northeastern Rub' al Khali were derived from Arabia, Anatolia, and the Zagros in varying proportions, with only local contribution from ophiolites of the northern Oman Mountains as revealed by cellular serpentinite and enstatite grains. In all samples detrital zircons yielded mostly Cambrian to Neoproterozoic ages reflecting Pan-African crustal growth and amalgamation of the Arabian shield, but several upper Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic zircons with ages as young as 5 Ma in northeastern Rub' al Khali dunes document ultimate provenance from the Anatolia-Zagros orogen. Quartzose dune sand of the southwestern Rub' al Khali, containing a moderately poor, amphibole-rich heavy-mineral assemblage and very few young zircons, is dominantly Arabian-derived. Relatively soft carbonate grains are typically concentrated in finer sand classes, which is ascribed to both mixing with coarser quartz recycled from Arabian siliciclastic covers and selective mechanical wear during multicyclic long-distance transport in high-energy eolian environments. Understanding the complex transfer of huge detrital masses on the Earth's surface, and mixing of sediments derived from different sources along successive tracts of a composite routing system that may cover cumulative distances of thousands of kilometers across climatic and tectonic boundaries over time periods of millions of years, is essential to enhance the resolution of source-to-sink studies and avoid gross oversimplifications in paleogeographic reconstructions.

THE USE OF MODIS DATA TO EXTRACT A DUST STORM PRODUCT

Iraq in the summer is affected by low pressure centered in the area of Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, and the high pressure region in the plateau of Anatolia. This climate system causes that the Shamal wind blows from the plateau of Anatolia in the north and northwest with relatively cold temperature. From mid-June to mid-September, the wind is accompanied with intensive heating of the earth surface causing dust storms rising up to thousand meters in the atmosphere above Iraq region. In recent years, the frequency of dust storm events was increased in Iraq and its surrounding regions due to the long drought seasons. Unsupervised classification method was used to determine the intensity of the dust storm and to identify the area of dust cloud. In this study, we were able to map dust storm over Iraq region using MODIS Terra and Aqua satellite data within thermal bands (band 31 and 32), and visible band VIS (band 1). Other thermal band (band 21) was used to produce RGB composite image specifying the dust storm. A spectral subtraction between two bands was also used to produce another RGB composite image to obtain better detection for the dust storm over Iraq region.

Cenozoic tectonics of the Tuz Gölü Basin (Central Anatolia Plateau, Turkey)

We present a new 3D geologic model for the architecture and Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the Tuz Gölü Basin, a major sedimentary basin in the Central Anatolian orogenic plateau. This model is grounded on 7 depth-converted seismic reflection profiles in combination with the analysis of backstripped subsidence curves, isochore maps, and a palinspastically restored cross-section. Two stages of basin formation are detected during Cenozoic times. During the Palaeogene, around 2 km of basement subsidence led to the development of a sag basin broader than the present basin in the absence of bounding faults. After a period of uplift and erosion, sedimentation restarted by Tortonian times. Up to 3.5 km of post-Palaeogene sediments were deposited in relation to this second regional subsidence phase, which continued possibly well into the Pliocene. During this time, the 2 main fault systems found in the area, the Tuz Gölü and the Sultanhanı faults, developed as south-west dipping, NW-SE striking, normal faults. At some time in the Late Miocene-Early Pliocene, during regional subsidence, a previously unreported phase of contraction occurred, which led to the development of a north-east-vergent thrust sheet, the culmination of which forms the morphologic ridge to the east of the Tuz Gölü Lake. This structure presently divides the previously continuous Tuz Gölü Basin. Finally, minor extensional reactivation occurred. At the regional scale, the pre-Late Miocene subsidence is coeval with the initiation of volcanism in the Central Anatolian Volcanic Province and marine carbonate deposition in southern Turkey, and the latest Miocene shortening is (partly) contemporaneous with the onset of uplift in the same region.

Tuz Gölü: new CEOS reference standard test site for infrared visible optical sensors

Tuz Gölü, a dry salt lake located in the central plateau of Anatolia (38.50°N, 33.20°E, center latitude longitude) in Turkey, was established as a standard reference test site for the vicarious calibration of land surface imagers. The site was first selected on the basis of the spatial uniformity results from the analysis of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images from July–August 2004 and July–August 2006. This proved its suitability for the calibration of high- and medium-resolution optical sensors. During the 2008 and 2009 measurement campaigns, the site was characterized in terms of its solar spectral surface reflectance factor (RF) and surface bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) characteristics and atmospheric conditions. The average surface reflectance factor is between 0.4 and 0.6 in the visible and near infrared (VNIR) and about 0.2 in the short-wave infrared (SWIR), which makes this site suitable mainly for the VNIR spectral region. The site is spatially uniform to within 2%–4% normalized standard deviation in the VNIR with large homogeneous areas, which are suitable for the calibration of medium-resolution optical sensors. The aerosol optical thickness at 550 nm has values higher than 0.1, and the related Ångström wavelength exponent has values over 1.3 for most of the days during the 2008 and 2009 measurement campaigns, indicating the presence of anthropogenic aerosols. According to the meteorological data (rain, solar irradiance) and the availability of large, dry homogeneous surfaces in August, the site can be used for postlaunch calibration of land surface imagers at this time of the year. It is one of the eight instrumented reference standard test sites (LandNet) that is characterized on a yearly basis by TÜBİTAK UZAY (TU), Turkey, with traceability to the International System of Units (SI) standards through the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), United Kingdom, according to the satellite overpasses. The data can be provided to interested space agencies on request.

Deformation of western Turkey from a combination of permanent and campaign GPS data: Limits to block‐like behavior

We present a new geodetic velocity field covering western Turkey, south of the North Anatolian fault. Our velocity field is derived from a combination of continuously recording GPS stations operating since 2003, survey‐type GPS measurements carried out in the period 1997–2005, and velocities from Reilinger et al. (2006). The velocity field indicates that western Turkey currently undergoes extension whose rate increases from the Anatolia plateau to the Aegean coast. The overall extension in westernmost Turkey is about 20 mm/yr, making it one of the fastest areas of continental extension in the world. We test whether the observed deformation is better represented by the rotation of crustal blocks or by more distributed deformation. While no deformation is detected in the central Anatolian plateau, we observe a deformation field west of the plateau that cannot be explained by block models, unless the blocks are so small as to be essentially indistinguishable from a continuum. Although concentration of strain rates (up to 140 nstrain/yr) are found across the major grabens, strain rates above 50 nstrain/yr are found throughout western Turkey. The distributions of topography and crustal thickness in western Turkey agree with the distributions expected if the crust there had a constant thickness at 5 Ma, equal to that of the present central Anatolian plateau, and had subsequently been thinned at the present‐day distribution of strain rates. Our results, therefore, suggest that extensional strain affects the whole continental lithosphere of western Turkey, rather than being restricted to a small number of block boundaries.

Precipitation and evaporation changes at Anatolia Plateau, Turkeyand their influences to the distribution of archaeological sites

Precipitation and evaporation changes at Anatolia Plateau, Turkeyand their influences to the distribution of archaeological sites

Middle eastern parallels: Syria‐Iraq‐Arabia in Ottoman times

It has been customary to conceive of the history of the Arab Middle East in the Ottoman period mostly in terms of cities which were centres of imperial administration. Rural and tribal areas away from these cities were treated, for the most part, as though they did not exist. The neglected area consisted of the greater part of Syria, Iraq and Arabia: three regions whose history between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries is commonly thought to comprise little more than sporadic developments of marginal consequence. To gain a proper appreciation of these three regions during this period, the full extent of the internal developments in the neglected territory must be brought out, and the complete range of external determinants that affected these developments must be surveyed. Before this is done, a glance at the physical map would be useful. Geographically, the territory of Syria-Iraq-Arabia may be simply described as a vast stretch of more or less level desert rising gradually from the basin of the Persian Gulf and the valley of Mesopotamia in the east, to end in the west in a fringe of mountains bordering the Red Sea in the south and the Mediterranean in the north. At the south-eastern end of this desert stand the lone mountains of Oman, overlooking the entrance to the Persian Gulf. In the north-east, the desert merges into the valley of Mesopotamia, or Iraq, which extends eastwards to the Zagros mountains. Beyond these mountains lies the plateau of Persia. In the north, the great Syro-Arabian desert (as it may be called) reaches the Taurus mountains which separate it from the plateau of Anatolia and the Armenian and Caucasian highlands. Historically, this vast Arab region, with its mountain, lowland and coastal peripheries, has never been known by a single, all-inclusive name (unless the Ottoman term 'Arabistan' can be considered such a name). It has comprised, throughout history, a shifting mosaic of names, and this diversity in names is matched by a geographical diversity in the area itself. Iraq, as a broad river valley which is mostly plain, is a country of fairly uniform topography where only a few natural divisions can be distinguished. Syria and Arabia, on the other hand, are broken up by mountains and deserts into a myriad of divisions and pockets, each with its own name and often peculiar character. The Lebanon, for example, is a rugged mountain region blessed by heavy rainfall and oriented towards the Mediterranean. Transjordan, another rugged region, has less predictable rainfall and is oriented in the north towards the Syrian interior, and in the south towards the Red Sea and the Arabian desert. Both regions stand in sharp contrast to a desert plateau such as that of Najd, lost in the centre of Arabia and surrounded on all sides by trackless sands; and neither Lebanon, Transjordan nor Najd bear any physical resemblance to the meandering valley of the Orontes, the oasis of Damascus, the basaltic plains of Hawran, the rolling hills of the Aleppo region, or the torrid, bare coastlands of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Even in Iraq, the marshlands of the south,

Alexander's Minor Campaigns in Turkey

Ifear it IS rather presumptuous stand on this platform with no exploration talk about. My journeys in Turkey during the last three years were not of that kind, and I have rely for your entertainment tonight on my photographs which illustrate a beautiful country, and on a subject which must always be of some interest, the march of Alexander in the course of his more obscure campaigns on the way Issus. They have not often been followed by travellers on the spot, and my object in this lecture is show you the landscape through which that army of young men travelled in 334 B.C, after the battle of the Granicus and the surrender of Miletus had given them a base on the Anatolian coast. This march through Asia Minor, which lasted more than a year and included a number of small separate campaigns, has been eclipsed by the importance of what came later, and also by the scantiness of the information left us. It is one of the few examples in history of a successful naval war fought out on land. Instead of taking the great Southern Highway that ran easily down the plateau of Anatolia, Alexander risked his communications by following the intricate and difficult way of the west coast, where he branched off?even while the still unconquered Darius was gathering his strength?into one little campaign after another keep the sea coast linked up with the interior. His mainland communications remained precarious throughout Alexander's lifetime and were only secured by Perdiccas as soon as an army became available after his death. Nothing but the need destroy, or rather take over, the Persian naval power at its source?the half-Greek half-barbarian cities of the coast with their population of sailors and hillsides of timber?can explain the choice of this wild and dangerous route for the march through Asia Minor. It was a deliberate choice. Alexander's fleet was inferior the Persian and he could not risk a sea battle. He had no money pay for new crews?he had set out on his venture with 70 talents, the equivalent today of some ?15,000 or ?16,000, in his treasury: and the Greeks of Asia Minor were ready (Arrian makes Alexander himself say so) to blaze into revolt against him at the first whisper of a naval defeat. The picture of them as an oppressed minority longing be liberated was largely the fashionable propaganda of that time.

Grundwassererschließung für landwirtschaftliche Bewässerung in ariden Gebieten, besonders in der Hochebene von Konya, Anatolien

Grundwassererschließung für landwirtschaftliche Bewässerung in ariden Gebieten, besonders in der Hochebene von Konya, Anatolien

Recent Earthquakes

ON July 30, violent earthquakes occurred on the central plateau of Anatolia. Twelve villages including Peyk were destroyed near Yozgad, the shock also being felt at Ankara, Erzinjan, Tokat, Kayseri, Amasya, Sinop, Istanbul and intervening places. Three hundred people are reported to have been killed and several hundreds of others injured. The epicentre of the shocks appears to have been near Yozgad, which is not far from Erzinjan, the centre of the greatest of all Turkish earthquakes on December 27, 1939 (NATURE, January 6, p. 13). The present shocks cannot be considered as aftershocks of the December 27 earthquake nor are they so intense, but they point to the same general instability of the whole region at the moment, of which all the shocks are the result. It must also be noticed that such a terrific earthquake as that of December 27 would itself give rise to instability which would persist for a considerable time and give rise to earthquake shocks in general not so intense as the original one. Aftershocks of the earthquakes of July 30 were continued on the next day.

XII. A Preliminary Study of the World Geometry of Structure Lines

Structural features on the surface of the earth have generally a linear arrangement. Within the limits of a fairly large scale map, that is to say, over such an area as that of the larger countries of Europe, they follow lines which on the map are sensibly straight. But sometimes within such limits, and nearly always over more extensive tracts, the lines are not straight. For example, the Hercynian trends in France are shown to be about east and west in the Armorican region, north east—south west in the Ardennes; while in the Central Plateau of France the trend lines form an elbow, where the Armorican direction bends round to that of the Variscan fragments. Again, the Alpine system is described as made up of arcuate members, diverging and converging on nodes. The marginal ranges of eastern Asia and the islands of the west Pacific are described as ‘festoons.’ These curving trends are related to resistent blocks, to which they are marginal, as the Alps and Carpathians are to the Hercynian Blocks, and the fold mountains of Asia Minor to the plateau of Anatolia; or they are related in the same way to the ‘continental nuclei,’ as the fold chains of eastern Asia to the Baikal Shield, or those of North America to the Laurentian Shield; and the relation is regarded as a causal one, which may be expected to throw light at least on the mechanics of the formation of the great terrestrial folds. These linear arrangements do not This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

Military Operations on the North Front of Mount Taurus

The route by which the army of Xerxes marched across the plateau of Anatolia has never been determined with certainty. On general considerations it may be stated with perfect confidence that the army crossed the Taurus by the pass of the Cilician Gates. The reasons are conclusive; there was, in fact, no other way, and the matter is so generally admitted as to need no discussion. Thereafter the great army gathered on the north side of Taurus at a place called Kritala in Cappadocia (Herodotus, vii. 26). Whether Kritala was a town or a locality (such as a plain with a river) is not stated; but, taking into consideration all the conditions, one can say with certainty that it was situated either in the fertile plain of Tyana or in the equally fertile and well-watered plain that lies between Kybistra and the lake called in modern times Ak-Gyol. The next point stated exactly by Herodotus in the route of the army is Kelainai at the source of the Maeander. The question is how the journey was performed between those points, the Cilician Pass on the east and Kelainai on the west.