Vertical Anatolian mavoment project

TÜBİTAK ÇAYDAG01.09.201

The RESET project: constructing a European tephra lattice for refined synchronisation of environmental and archaeological events during the last c. 100 ka

This paper introduces the aims and scope of the RESET project (. RESponse of humans to abrupt Environmental Transitions), a programme of research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (UK) between 2008 and 2013; it also provides the context and rationale for papers included in a special volume of Quaternary Science Reviews that report some of the project's findings. RESET examined the chronological and correlation methods employed to establish causal links between the timing of abrupt environmental transitions (AETs) on the one hand, and of human dispersal and development on the other, with a focus on the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic periods. The period of interest is the Last Glacial cycle and the early Holocene (c. 100-8 ka), during which time a number of pronounced AETs occurred. A long-running topic of debate is the degree to which human history in Europe and the Mediterranean region during the Palaeolithic was shaped by these AETs, but this has proved difficult to assess because of poor dating control. In an attempt to move the science forward, RESET examined the potential that tephra isochrons, and in particular non-visible ash layers (cryptotephras), might offer for synchronising palaeo-records with a greater degree of finesse. New tephrostratigraphical data generated by the project augment previously-established tephra frameworks for the region, and underpin a more evolved tephra 'lattice' that links palaeo-records between Greenland, the European mainland, sub-marine sequences in the Mediterranean and North Africa. The paper also outlines the significance of other contributions to this special volume: collectively, these illustrate how the lattice was constructed, how it links with cognate tephra research in Europe and elsewhere, and how the evidence of tephra isochrons is beginning to challenge long-held views about the impacts of environmental change on humans during the Palaeolithic. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.RESET was funded through Consortium Grants awarded by the Natural Environment Research Council, UK, to a collaborating team drawn from four institutions: Royal Holloway University of London (grant reference NE/E015905/1), the Natural History Museum, London (NE/E015913/1), Oxford University (NE/E015670/1) and the University of Southampton, including the National Oceanography Centre (NE/01531X/1). The authors also wish to record their deep gratitude to four members of the scientific community who formed a consultative advisory panel during the lifetime of the RESET project: Professor Barbara Wohlfarth (Stockholm University), Professor Jørgen Peder Steffensen (Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen), Dr. Martin Street (Romisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Neuwied) and Professor Clive Oppenheimer (Cambridge University). They provided excellent advice at key stages of the work, which we greatly valued. We also thank Jenny Kynaston (Geography Department, Royal Holloway) for construction of several of the figures in this paper, and Debbie Barrett (Elsevier) and Colin Murray Wallace (Editor-in-Chief, QSR) for their considerable assistance in the production of this special volume.Peer Reviewe

Shoshonitic volcanism of the Bodrum caldera (SW Turkey): Hybridization of enriched mantle-derived and crustal melts

International audienceBodrum Caldera, located at the southwestern tip of the Anatolian plate, comprises volcanic rocks formed by intrusive, effusive and explosive volcanic activity during Miocene. Volcanic rocks chemically belong to K-rich shoshonitic series and comprised of a range of compositions from absarokites to rhyolites with intrusive micromonzogabbros and micromonzonites. The least evolved magmatic rocks are the post-caldera micromonzogabbros. Blebs/droplets with different mineralogical/petrographical characteristics and resorbed xenocrystic glomerocrysts/cumulates comprised of feldspar and clinopyroxene in disequilibrium with the host rocks suggest that mixing between compositionally different magmas was an important process for the evolution of Bodrum volcanism. Especially shoshonites contain mixing and mingling textures probably occurred between monzogabbroic and more evolved monzonitic magmas. Fractional crystallization was limited to felsic (>60% SiO2) rocks where feldspar, pyroxene, biotite, apatite and zircon were the main fractionating phases. Trace element abundances indicate a garnet-bearing enriched mantle peridotite, resembling EM-1 with a modal assemblage of garnet, rutile, titanite and phlogopite, as the common mantle source rock. Non-modal fractional melting models exhibit that micromonzonites, absarokites and micromonzogabbros were derived from lower (1-3%), moderate (10-15%) and higher (>20%) degrees partial melting of an enriched mantle, respectively. Besides, monzonitic compositions can be produced by partial fusion of a subducting slab with hypothetical composition of 80% GLOSS and 20 % N-MORB. Basic-intermediate compositions can be produced by the mixing/mingling of the micromonzogabbroic and monzonitic magmas. Crustal assimilation and fractional crystallization of hybrid absarokitic melts can yield intermediate-to-felsic compositions of Bodrum shoshonitic series

Volcanological evolution and caldera forming eruptions of Mt. Nemrut (Eastern Turkey)

International audienceMt. Nemrut volcano, situated at the west of Lake Van, is one of the historically active volcanoes of the Eastern Anatolia. It has an 8.5 × 7 km diameter summit caldera. Volcanic activity of Mt. Nemrut started ~ 1 Ma ago; the most recent eruptions were in 1441, 1597 and 1692 A.D. Among the Eastern Anatolian volcanoes, Mt. Nemrut is the most hazardous volcano for its vicinity. Present day volcanic activity is represented by intra-caldera hydrothermal and fumarolic output and low-level volcano-seismic events. Geological evolution and chronostratigraphy of the volcano is subdivided in three stages: pre-caldera, syn-caldera and post-caldera stages. Pre-caldera products are dominated by felsic lava flows and domes. Trachytic Nemrut and Kantaşı pyroclastics represent the caldera forming activity, of which sequences are composed of fallout units and ignimbrite flows. Both Nemrut and Kantaşı ignimbrite units are low-aspect ratio ignimbrites, they are generally densely welded and present columnar jointed outcrops locally. Extent of Nemrut ignimbrite (volume: 32.6 km3) is greater than the Kantaşı ignimbrite (volume: 3.8 km3). Post-caldera activity of the volcano is marked by peralkaline rhyolitic (comendite) intra-caldera lava flows and explosive hydrovolcanic activities. Historical activity of the volcano is represented by bimodal basaltic-rhyolitic effusive activity along Nemrut rift zone

A Rhinocerotid Skull Cooked-To-Death In A 9.2 Ma-Old Ignimbrite Flow of Turkey

Background Preservation of fossil vertebrates in volcanic rocks is extremely rare. An articulated skull (cranium and mandible) of a rhinoceros was found in a 9.2±0.1 Ma-old ignimbrite of Cappadocia, Central Turkey. The unusual aspect of the preserved hard tissues of the skull (rough bone surface and brittle dentine) allows suspecting a peri-mortem exposure to a heating source. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we describe and identify the skull as belonging to the large two-horned rhinocerotine Ceratotherium neumayri, well-known in the late Miocene of the Eastern Mediterranean Province. Gross structural features and microscopic changes of hard tissues (bones and teeth) are then monitored and compared to the results of forensic and archaeological studies and experiments focusing on heating effects, in order to reconstruct the hypothetical peri-mortem conditions. Macroscopic and microscopic structural changes on compact bones (canaliculi and lamellae vanished), as well as partial dentine/cementum disintegration, drastic enamel-dentine disjunctions or microscopic cracks affecting all hard dental tissues (enamel, cementum, and dentine) point to continued exposures to temperatures around 400–450°C. Comparison to other cases of preservation of fossil vertebrates within volcanic rocks points unambiguously to some similarity with the 79 AD Plinian eruption of the Vesuvius, in Italy. Conclusions/Significance A 9.2±0.1 Ma-old pyroclastic density current, sourced from the Çardak caldera, likely provoked the instant death of the Karacaşar rhino, before the body of the latter experienced severe dehydration (leading to the wide and sustainable opening of the mouth), was then dismembered within the pyroclastic flow of subaerial origin, the skull being separated from the remnant body and baked under a temperature approximating 400°C, then transported northward, rolled, and trapped in disarray into that pyroclastic flow forming the pinkish Kavak-4 ignimbrite ∼30 km North from the upper Miocene vent.PubMedWoSScopu

The major and trace element glass compositions of the productive Mediterranean volcanic sources: Tools for correlating distal tephra layers in and around Europe

The increasing application of cryptotephra studies is leading the identification of new tephra marker layers the sources of which in many cases may not be known or may be ambiguous. In this contribution, we discuss the controls on tephra geochemistry in the context of establishing the provenance of an unknown tephra layer. We use the RESET database (https://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk), which contains major and trace element data for a number of European silicic tephra erupted in the period 100 ka to ca 10 ka, to define new and modify existing tectonic setting discrimination diagrams for use with volcanic glass analyses. Bivariate plots of the elements Rb, Nb, Ta, Y and Th and K2O, SiO2, FeO and MgO can be used to identify tephra from different tectonic settings. New, detailed glass chemistry shows that tephra from the productive Neapolitan volcanic centres, Somma-Vesuvius (22-4 ka activity), Campi Flegrei (60-15 ka) and Ischia (75-20 ka), can be separated using major elements, CaO-SiO2, Na2O/K2OeCaO and CaO-MgO. In each of these centres, the tephrostratigraphic record is characterized by the repeated occurrence of similar glass compositions, punctuated by significant changes in magma chemistry. The glass compositions of successive eruptions from Campi Flegrei are similar but there is a significant change in the composition following the Campanian Ignimbrite, and there are comparable compositional changes at Ischia following the Monte Epomeo Green Tuff eruption and at Somma-Vesuvius following the Verdoline event. Distinguishing different tephras from a single volcanic centre is more problematic, and in some instances even impossible, without good chronological and stratigraphic control and/or high-resolution trace element glass data. At Somma-Vesuvius certain major elements can be used to separate glasses from the major chronological phases (Group 1 e Pomici di Base and Verdoline; Group 2 e Mercato and Avellino), but separating tephras within a single group on the basis of glass composition can be problematic

<i>Ceratotherium neumayri</i> (Osborn, 1900), Karacaşar, Late Vallesian of South Central Anatolia.

<p>Dimensions of the cranium HU-2011-1 (in mm).</p

Karacaşar exposure, Cappadocia, Central Anatolia, Turkey.

<p>Detail of the exposure (a), showing the cerebellar section of the <i>Ceratotherium neumayri</i> cranium cropping out in the bank of the stream (b), and the right <i>angulus mandibulare</i> as later appearing during the extraction process (c). Note the presence of bone fragments to the left of the skull (i.e. South to it) and of centimetric whitish pumice clasts both within and around the cerebellar area (b, c).</p

Volcanic rocks likely to embed fossil vertebrates and associated morphological and/or taphonomic features, sorted by increasing temperature range.

<p>Preservation of the Karacaşar rhino (submitted to a ∼400–450°C temperature) is most likely tied to a pyroclastic density current, reminiscent of that of Pompeii-Herculaneum-Oplontis, of Vesuvius origin (79 AD).</p

Taphonomical processes involved in the preservation of the Karacaşar rhino.

<p>a. general view of the cranium and mandible. b. detail of the dorsal area of the cranium, with a broken rhino rib, trapped ‘upstream’ beside it. c. detail of baked dentine (brittle occlusal surface) and roots (hollow) of right P4-M2. d. labial detail of left p3-m1 showing deteriorated roots and intact enamel; note that p4 and m1 show mild enamel hypoplasia. Scale bar: 20 mm.</p