Post-Glacial Terraces of The Marmara Sea and water exchange periods

Year 2018, Volume: 157 Issue: 157, 39 - 57, 15.12.2018

Vedat Ediger Emin Demirbağ , Semih Ergintav , Sedat İnan Ruhi Saatçılar

https://doi.org/10.19111/bulletinofmre.401208

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Semi-enclosed Marmara Sea is a passage between the Aegean
Sea (Northeastern Mediterranean Sea) and the Black Sea. The Marmara Sea is
connected to the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea through the İstanbul Strait
(Bosphorus) and Çanakkale Strait (Dardanelles), respectively. Despite the
fact that the late Pleistocene-Holocene connections between the seas have been
explored by many scientists, there are still uncertainties about the nature and
timing of the connections. Within the scope of this study, a new approach has
been displayed for post-glacial connections between the Black Sea, Marmara Sea,
and the Aegean Sea. This study is based on 80 shallow seismic reflection
lines, multibeam bathymetric data and 15 short gravity cores collected from the
northeastern shelf of the Marmara Sea (between Silivri and Golden Horn). The
sea bottom and sub-bottom morphology have a highly chaotic structure at the
exit of the Büyükçekmece/Küçükçekmece lagoons and further east near the
Marmara- İstanbul Strait junction. This chaotic bottom and sub-bottom
surface morphologies are mainly controlled by the structure of the basin,
current regime of the shelf, coastal drainage systems and by the sea/lake water
level changes controlled by climate and the sill depths of the two straits, which
in turn determined the water exchange between the seas. The
sedimentological interpretation of the seismic reflection profiles and core
sediments have allowed us to distinguish five stratigraphic units (S1-S5) and
four sedimentary layers (A-D) over the acoustic basement. The lower
stratigraphic unit and sedimentary layer are separated from the overlying
acoustic basement by a chaotic to parallel and by a high amplitude seismic
reflector. Seaward dipping units of the acoustic basement are inferred to be
the seaward continuation of the Oligocene–Upper Miocene units widely exposed on
land. The presence of three different marine terraces distinguished (T1-T3)
along the northeastern shelf of the Marmara Sea have been associated with the
six different curves of the post-glacial sea-level changes. From statistical point
of view, the most significant terraces occur from -78 m to -80 m (T1), -58 m to
-62 m (T2) and -28 m to -32 m at (T3). Considering the global sea level curves,
these terraces can be dated 9.25, 12.25 and 13.75 Cal kyr BP, respectively.

Keywords

Marmara Sea, Morphology, Marine terraces, Sea-level changes, Paleo-lagoon

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