Synchronous Last Glacial Maximum across the Anatolian peninsula

Abstract

Uludağ is a prominent mountain in northwestern Turkey where glacial deposits have been documented in the Kovuk Valley and the glacial history has been reconstructed based on 31 cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages from glacially transported boulders and bedrock. The results suggest that the Kovuk Glacier began advancing before 26.5±1.6 ka. It reached its maximum extent at 20.3±1.3 ka, followed by a re-advance at 19.3±1.2 ka, both during the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) within Marine Isotope Stage 2. The timing of the LGM glaciations in the Kovuk Valley is consistent with the investigated LGM glaciations in other mountains of Anatolia, the Mediterranean and the Alps. Based on the geomorphological ice margin reconstruction and using the accumulation/ablation area ratio (AAR) approach, the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) of the Kovuk LGM glacier was c. 2000 m above sea level for an estimated AAR of 0.67. This indicates a c. 1000 m lowering of the ELA for the LGM compared with the modern ELA estimate. These lines of evidence are consistent with the LGM glaciers that have been documented elsewhere in the Anatolian Mountains.Supplementary material: An input file for exposure age calculation in the CRONUS-Earth online calculator and an KML file for sample locations are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18878

Quaternary glaciation in the Mediterranean mountains: a new synthesis

“…These are either 10 Be or 36 Cl exposure age studies. As reviewed by Sarıkaya & Ç iner (2015) and Akçar et al (2015) in this volume, all of these data indicate Late Pleistocene glaciation in Turkey. In marked contrast with the records in Greece, Italy and the western Mediterranean, there is currently no published evidence of older Middle Pleistocene glaciations anywhere in Turkey.…”

“…The timing of glaciations in the Mediterranean mountains has been constrained using a range of approaches. Examples presented in this volume include cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating of boulders and bedrock surfaces (Akçar et al 2015;Federici et al 2016;Palacios et al 2016;Pope et al 2015;Turu et al 2016), radiocarbon dating of basal glacial lake deposits (Giraudi & Giaccio 2015;Serrano et al 2016;Turu et al 2016), Ar/Ar dating of tephras in mountain basins (Giraudi & Giaccio 2015), optically stimulated luminescence dating of glacio-fluvial outwash deposits (Serrano et al 2016;Turu et al 2016) and uranium series dating of secondary carbonate cements Serrano et al 2016) in glacial and glacio-fluvial deposits.…”

“…It is comprehensively represented here by three papers that include new regional syntheses and valley-scale case studies. Akçar et al (2015) focus on a case study from Uludag in the far northwest in which they present a suite of Cl exposure ages. The paper by reviews the glaciations of southern Turkey and neighbouring countries, including Lebanon.…”

Geomorphology of Mount Ararat/Ağri Daği (Ağri Daği Milli Parki, Eastern Anatolia, Turkey)

“…If we take into consideration evidence of local and regional glacial advances in the Pleistocene, few studies describe the extent of glaciers on the Mount Ararat/Ağri Daği. Çiner (2004), Sarikaya et al (2011), Sarikaya and Çiner (2014), and Akçar et al (2015) reported evidence for wide Pleistocene glaciations in the Taurus Mountains, on the northern-facing slopes of the Eastern Black Sea Mountains, on the Mounts Erciyes and Süphan, and on Mount Ararat/Ağri Daği; for the LGM they identified a mean snow line altitude at ca. 2500 m a.s.l.…”

Modelling Last Glacial Maximum ice cap with the Parallel Ice Sheet Model to infer palaeoclimate in south‐west Turkey

“…In the last two decades, quantitative palaeoglacier studies in Turkey have witnessed an unprecedented increase (Hughes et al, 2013;Hughes and Woodward, 2017), thanks to the application of cosmogenic nuclide surface dating methods (e.g. Akçar et al, 2007Akçar et al, , 2017Sarıkaya et al, 2008Sarıkaya et al, , 2014Sarıkaya and Çiner, 2017, and references therein).…”