The last reconnection of the Marmara Sea (Turkey) to the World Ocean : A paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic perspective

Support for the analyses wasfrom NSF-OCE-0222139; OCE-9807266 and PSC-CUNY 69138-00 38.

During the late glacial, marine isotope Stage 2, the Marmara Sea transformed into abrackish lake as global sea level fell below the sill in the Dardanelles Strait. A record of thebasin’s reconnection to the global ocean is preserved in its sediments permitting the extraction ofthe paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic history of the region. The goal of this study is todevelop a high-resolution record of the lacustrine to marine transition of Marmara Sea in order toreconstruct regional and global climatic events at 24 a millennial scale. For this purpose, we mappedthe paleoshorelines of Marmara Sea along the northern, eastern, and southern shelves atÇekmece, Prince Islands, and Imrali, using data from multibeam bathymetry, high-resolutionsubbottom profiling (chirp) and ten sediment cores. Detailed sedimentologic, biostratigraphic(foraminifers, mollusk, diatoms), X-ray fluorescence geochemical scanning, and oxygen andcarbon stable isotope analyses correlated to a calibrated radiocarbon chronology providedevidence for cold and dry conditions prior to 15 ka BP, warm conditions of the Bolling-Allerodfrom ~15 to 13 ka BP, a rapid marine incursion at 12 ka BP, still stand of Marmara Sea andsediment reworking of the paleoshorelines during the Younger Dryas at ~11.5 to 10.5 ka BP, anddevelopment of strong stratification and influx of nutrients as Black Sea waters spilled intoMarmara Sea at 9.2 ka BP. Stable environmental conditions developed in Marmara Sea after 6.0ka BP as sea-level reached its present shoreline and the basin floors filled with sedimentsachieving their present configuration.

Author Posting. © Elsevier B.V., 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Geology 255 (2008): 64-82, doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2008.07.005.