We present the first detailed Quaternary landform map of the Büyük Menderes Graben System, located in western Turkey which is one of the most active extensional domains in the world. The main map was produced with a combination of TanDEM-X (12.5 m resolution), Red Relief Image Map, unmanned aerial vehicle, Google Earth images, and multiple fieldworks. The main map is presented at a scale of 1:160,000 although landforms were mapped at a scale of 1:15,000. The ten Quaternary landforms were defined considering their surface morphology and depositional environment. The alluvial fans, river terraces, and floodplains are the most common landforms. The spatial pattern of the alluvial fans and river terraces showed the variable rates of tectonics and surface processes along the strike of the graben system. The distribution of the meander cut-offs and paleo-shorelines imply that Büyük Menderes Graben System is vulnerable to geohazards like flash-flood sedimentation and flood events.
Tectonics imparts a first-order control on the overall morphology of alluvial fan systems in extensional settings by influencing sediment flux and accommodation space, while other factors such as climate, catchment lithology, and fault footwall characteristics are secondary. Previous alluvial fan modeling studies have focused on the link between the three-dimensional development of alluvial fans and rock uplift, however, despite the potential influence of tectonics on the overall three-dimensional morphology of alluvial fans, the controlling mechanisms, as well as their relative importance, remain largely unquantified in a natural setting with a targeted source-to-sink approach. Here, we examine 45 alluvial fans and their catchments along the southern mountain front of the Aydın Range, delimited by segmented normal faults in the western Anatolia Extensional Province, to quantify the role of rock uplift. We quantify river incision rates and catchment-wide erosion rates together with a series of topographic analyses across the southern flank of the Aydın Range as a proxy for rock uplift. Our results indicate that the spatial distribution of thicker and steeper alluvial fans fit well with higher rock uplift rates along the strike of the mountain front. In contrast, a lower uplift rate is responsible for prograding alluvial fans with decreasing thickness and gradients. Also, our data shows that alluvial fan thickness compared to other alluvial fan metrics strongly associated with the pattern of the rock uplift. This study demonstrates a field-based, quantitative linkage between three-dimensional alluvial fan morphology and rock uplift which has significant implications for improving alluvial fan models and understanding how alluvial fans respond to tectonics in extensional regions.
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