Climatic and Tectonic Effects on the Origin and Evolution of the Dereici Travertines (The Bakale Basin, Eastern Turkiye), and Neotectonic Implications

Abstract

The Baokale Ba sin is lo cated in the east ern most part of Turkiye, within a tec toni cally ac tive area, and lo cated at the in ter sec - tion of Eu rope, Asia and the Mid dle East. In this study, the Dereici travertines, one of the most im por tant prod ucts of neotectonism in the ba sin, were in ves ti gated sedimentologically, min er al og i cally and geochemically. To un der stand the neotectonic evo lu tion of the trav er tine suc ces sion, the se quence was stud ied from bot tom to top as re gards mor phol ogy, lithofacies and U/Th dates. Crys tal line crust, coated gas bub bles, shrub, pa per-thin raft and palaeosol lithofacies have been de tected in the Dereigi travertines, which are mor pho log i cally of layer type, two ridge types and ter race type. The Dereici travertines com menced to pre cip i tate at the in ter sec tion of the Ieikli and Ilicak faults at 255.56 +/- 9.01 ka, and their de po si tion con tin ues to day. Trav er tine de po si tion paused twice be tween 198.31 +/- 18-143.07 +/- 1.5 ka and 96.73 +/- 8.34-61.59 +/- 5.4 ka, when palaeosol de vel op ment took place. Ac cord ing to field and lab o ra tory stud ies, the Dereici travertines de vel oped un der cli mate and tec tonic con trol. The Ieikli and Ilicak faults played ac tive roles in the de vel op ment of the travertines. As the trav -er tine ages are linked to move ment on both faults, the age of the Ieikli Fault should be 255.56 +/- 9.01 ka or ear lier, and that of the Ilicak Fault should be 143.07 +/- 1.5 ka or ear lier.