IntroductionTravertine deposits located 24 km northwest of Karakoçan (Elazığ) and 60 km southwest of Mazgirt (Tunceli) (Figures 1a and 1b) are on the Karakoçan Fault Zone (KFZ) and Pamuklu Fault Zone (PFZ) and segments of the faults. The terms 'travertine' and 'carbonate tufa' are often used indiscriminately. 'Travertine' is frequently used to refer to carbonate rocks formed from thermal water deposits on the earth's surface, forming various deposit morphologies such as cascades, apron and channel travertines, fissure ridges, plateaus, and towers (Pedley, 2009;Pedley and Rogerson, 2010;Fouke, 2011). According to Andrews (2006) and Capezzuoli et al. (2014), tufas are terrestrial carbonates that form under surficial open-air conditions in streams, rivers, and lakes. Tufa is a product of physicochemical and microbiological biomediation processes. Because tufas form under exposure to light, they contain microbial (bacterial and cyanobacterial) and sometimes other algal components; many tufas encrust higher plants that live on the margins of streams, waterfalls, and wetlands (Pentecost et al., 1997). Tufa carbonates precipitate at ambient temperature from the calcium-bicarbonate waters derived from the dissolution of carbonate bedrock. Travertines are freshwater carbonates precipitated by organic or inorganic processes from the resources of calcium-and bicarbonaterich underground waters (Guo and Riding, 1998). Rapid travertine precipitation initiates when the CO 2 gas within the outcropping waters is emitted to the atmosphere. These freshwater carbonates have an internal structure that frequently changes laterally and vertically. Many conditions, such as differences in the lateral and vertical facies, the position of the resource, the base topography, fluctuations in the amount of the waters storing travertine, and changes in the flow rate and direction of water, organic activities, and surface waters, are frequently encountered in travertine fields due to seasonal climatic factors and tectonic zones. Topography plays a determinative role in the development of facies and in the storing of travertines. The climatic changes' influence on algal growth and travertine precipitation, besides tectonic settings, may produce a significant effect on depositional geometry of the hydrothermal travertine formation. These conditions
