Holocene paleoenvironmental evolution of the Acıgöl paleo maar lake (Nevşehir, Central Anatolia)

Abstract

Acıgöl (Nevşehir, Central Anatolia) is a drained crater lake. Acıgöl maar was formed by the violent vapor explosions due to the interaction of hot rhyolitic magma with the (sub-)surface water during the latest Pleistocene. A 844 cm-deep borehole was drilled at the maar and 713 cm-thick Acıgöl Core Succession (ACS) was retrieved. The ACS is mainly composed of lower laminated and upper non-laminated mudstones (sandy, silty, and clayey) with rare organic and volcanic interlayers. Eleven ostracod taxa (Cypris pubera, Plesiocypridopsis newtoni, Heterocypris salina, Eucypris cf. heinrichi, Candona candida, Candona meerfeldiana, Pseudocandona marchica, Cyclocypris sp., Ilyocypris bradyi, Limnocythere inopinata, and Darwinula stevensoni) were determined in this study. Along with ostracods, gastropods (Gyraulus piscinarum and Stagnicola sp.), pelecypods (Pisidium personatum), charophytes, and fish remains were also observed, while diatoms are the most frequent and abundant assemblage of the ACS. The assemblage at the lower parts of ACS mainly indicates wetter, freshwater to oligohaline, and oligotrophic and relatively deep lacustrine conditions alternating with short lake shrinkage intervals. On the other hand, the fauna at the upper part of the ACS points out to saline, shallow, and warmer lacustrine conditions.

New findings on compositionally distinct maar volcanoes: A case study from Acıgöl (Nevşehir) caldera (Central Anatolia, Turkey)

“…They are dominantly felsic in composition, except for the mafic İcik maar and Karataş tuff ring (Türkecan et al, 2004;Aydar et al, 2011;and this study). Among the maars, the Acıgöl coalescent maar (20.3 ± 0.9 ka, 2σ, U-Th/He, Schmitt et al, 2011; Table 1) is the only one studied for its volcanological and paleoclimatological characteristics (Kazancı et al, 1995;Roberts et al, 2001;Mouralis et al, 2002Mouralis et al, , 2019Tuncer et al, 2019). All felsic maars in the region, except for the İnallı maar (Figure 1C), have a lava dome in their centers that successively postdates the maar formation (Schmitt et al, 2011).…”

Geology and geomorphology of the Cappadocia volcanic Province, Turkey

“…Within these boundaries, the present issue contains several articles concerning two important aspects of the evolution of the geological, geomorphological and biological features that took and still take part in forming and constructing today's Cappadocia. The articles of this special issue concern two broad topics: (1) palaeoenvironments (see papers by Doğan et al 2019;Gürbüz et al 2019;Tuncer et al 2019), and (2) processes and consequences of magmatic activity and their relationships with the evolution of the volcanic landscapes through time and space (see papers by Atici et al 2019;Aydemir et al 2019;Ersoy et al 2019;Kuzucuoğlu et al 2019;Mouralis et al 2019b).…”

“…They clearly show the dominance of arboreal taxa during the early Holocene followed by a drying trend during the late Holocene (Woldring 1997;Woldring andBottema 2001/2002). Within this frame, the results of the study of ostracod successions at Eski Acıgöl crater by Tuncer et al (2019) provide precision on the timing and characterisation of the environmental conditions recorded by the crater-fill. In the lower third of the sequence, these conditions define an early wet climate characterized by freshwater to oligohaline, oligotrophic and relatively deep lacustrine conditions alternating with short lake shrinkage intervals.…”

“…As a result, today's landscapes in Cappadocia mix stratovolcanoes and deeply incised canyons, volcanic flows and tectonic fault lines, maar lakes and basaltic cones, mesas over plateaus incised by dry valleys covered with tephras, travertines underlining heat conduits controlled by fault systems. Several articles in this issue stress the continuation of tectonic (Doğan et al 2019), magmatic (Aydemir et al 2019;Kuzucuoğlu et al 2019), volcanic (Atici et al 2019;Ersoy et al 2019;Kuzucuoğlu et al 2019;Mouralis et al 2019b), and climatic (Doğan et al 2019;Tuncer et al 2019) impacts not only landscapes but also the future of the region and of its population.…”