Overview of Valley Types Formed by Göksu River (Mersin, Southern Turkey)

Year 2019, Volume: 14 Issue: 4, 132 - 137, 30.12.2019

Ahmet Turan

Abstract

There are
varius valley types in the rock
groups formed from Ordovician to Miocene
at the mouth of the Göksu River. Basement rocks in the area are coposed of mainly low resistant Miocene
mudstone-shale-marl and high resistant chalkarenites and an important or lesser amount of low resistant Ordovician
metamorfic rocks; medium to high resistant Upper Devonian-Upper Cretaceous
clastic and carbonateceous rocks. The
types of valley with wide and gentlement
floor (broad valley) is dominant in the Langhian- Tortonian low resistant
mudstone-shale-marl-clayey limestone in the Mut and surrounding area. These
rock groups have cropped out in the ondulated morphology and as low dipping
stratas. The deposition of the thick alluvial materials in the bottom of the Göksu River caused the developing
of the many small scale planes along the Göksu
Valley. A canyon valley in 2.5 km long was also developed in the Miocene
chalcarenites showing plentiful joints and strongly porous nature that were
observed in the Evkafçiftliği and Kargıcak villages, in the central part of the
study area. A very thin alluvial cover composed of pebles-sands and muds was
deposited at the bottom of the canyon. The valleys developed on the
Paleozoic-Mesozoic clastic and carbonateceous rocks in the main valley of the Göksu River at the surrounding area
of the Değirmendere and Karakaya
villages in the western part of the
Silifke are narrow floor, anticline and cutting through type valleys. Terrace
deposits are clearly observed in the main valley slopes while recent alluvial
materials deposited in the bottom of the
valley are in the shape of narrow
and thin strips. The meander valley
types can distinctly be distinguished in the Langhian-Tortonian
mudstones-shales- marls and very wide spread and very thick Holocene alluviums
of the Göksu delta at the center of the Silfke and surrounding area in the
eastern-south-eastern part of the study area.

Keywords

Valley types, broad valley, canyon valey, delta, Göksu, Holocene, alluvium

References

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