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The sediment of Lake Çubuk in NW Anatolia, which is situated very close to the climate boundary between the dry Central Anatolia and the wet Marmara region, is regarded as a suitable climate archive to test inward and outward movements of this boundary in accordance with past climate variations. Herein, we study the stratigraphic record of the last 2800 years of this landslide-dammed lake at 1030 m elevation, using multi-proxy tools (sedimentology, major and trace element geochemistry, stable isotopes, pollen, diatoms and ostracods) and compare the results with other contemporaneous Anatolian climatic records. Our findings indicate that Lake Çubuk recorded seven distinct climatic periods in the last 2800 years that have been previously revealed elsewhere in Anatolia. The most arid period occurred at the end of the Near-East Aridification Phase at approximately 200 BC when the δ 18 O shifted to very negative values, and the planktonic diatom ratio considerably decreased. The Dark Ages and the late Byzantine periods between AD 670 and 1070 are characterized by more positive δ 18 O values, increasingly higher lake levels and the most extensive arboreal cover of the entire record. The 'Little Ice Age' appeared suddenly, within 40 years, at AD 1350 and is reflected in all of the proxies, including a positive shift in δ 18 O, a sharp decrease in pollen of shrub and herb to the benefit of pine trees and a rapid increase in benthic diatom abundance indicating a lake level shallowing. In many parts of the record, a close match between the stable isotopes and the pollen assemblage zones in the last 2800 years demonstrates that climate rather than human activity was the primary driver of vegetation cover in this mid-altitude mountain of NW Anatolia.

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The identification of past connection routes between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, other than the traditional one through to the Bosphorus Strait, would be of considerable interest to the international scientific community.

The Konya region in central Anatolia is covered by Pliocene-Late Pleistocene sediments and volcanites related to the sediments NNW of Karapınar, Turkey. In the area, the Upper Miocene-Quaternary Üzecek Dağı and Karacadağ volcanites are generally of the same age and formed from magmas of similar composition. The Karapınar formation is brown to whitish-beige, partly fossiliferous and consists of limestone, marl, claystone and, locally, sandy layers. Silica-rich lenses, nodules and layers are observed in the upper strata which locally contain sepiolite-rich layers. The mineralogical composition of sepiolite samples taken from the area was determined by powder X-ray diffractometry, while the abundance of major-element oxides was measured by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The crystallographic and morphological properties of samples were determined by means of scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. Samples were taken from three sections and from random locations. Mineral assemblages in the same stratigraphic position are generally similar in the three sections, while the thickness of the individual beds varies between the sections. Dolomite and calcite are the main carbonate minerals in the sections. Sepiolite occurs primarily with dolomite and, locally, dolomite and calcite, and less commonly with just calcite. Generally, quartz, feldspar and mica are found, especially in the upper parts of the sections where tuff is abundant. CaO and MgO dominate the major-element oxides. The CaO content is between 1 and 30% while MgO is 3–21%. Al2O3 and SiO2 are generally higher in the sepiolitic and tuffitic layers. Al2O3 is <3% and SiO2 is between 15–18% in the sepiolitic layers. The average structural formula of sepiolite was calculated as: (Mg7.00Al0.44Fe0.18)(Si11.71Al0.29)O30 (OH)4(OH2)4Ca0.13K0.09Na0.01. Sepiolite occurs as fibers and dolomite as subhedral or euhedral crystals. It is considered that sepiolite was formed either by conversion of dolomite or by direct precipitation from solution under alkaline and saline conditions in the Karapınar paleolake. The paleolake was saturated with respect to Mg, Ca and Si derived from groundwater that percolated along fracture systems.

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