Facies and depositional sequences of Melendiz Confluence Holocene sediments, Central Anatolia, Turkey

Ghislain Berlin Viban *, Ali Gürel and Honorine Nug

Department of Geological Engineering, Ömer Halisdemir University, 51240 Niğde, Turkey.
 
Research Article
International Journal of Science and Research Archive, 2024, 12(01), 2287–2307.
Article DOI: 10.30574/ijsra.2024.12.1.1013
Publication history: 
Received on 23 April 2024; revised on 01 June 2024; accepted on 04 June 2024
 
Abstract: 
The aim of this article is to investigate the Çiftlik Plain and the Central Anatolia Cappadocia Volcanic Province, the unexplored Quaternary fills, and their climate records. This studies has gained importance as it completes a deficiency in the region.A confluence is where a tributary joins a larger river which depicts an important area of deposition which is an essential geomorphological node that controls the downstream routing of flow and  (P2), located between latitudes N38°11' and longitudes E34°27', at an altitude of 1532m above sea level in the Çiftlik Basin. In this  Confluence in Çiftlik (M-1 to M-10) (A-J), consisting of paleosols and terrestrial sediments (P2), in which a profile from a collection of 41 specimens was initially examined.
This article evaluates therefore the depositional sequences of sediments brought in by the Melendiz stream that flourished during the Early Quaternary. The Quaternary fills are made up of terrestrial sediments and paleosols and consisted of fined, medium and coarse grains ranging from peat, silt. clay, sands, pebbles of various different sizes. Some of these grains came from the immediate surroundings seen from their coarse and angular shapes while the fined grains must have travelled for a long distance having been worked and reworked by wind and running water. To determine the quality and quantity of the collected samples, the samples were prepared for measurement by passing the necessary processes according to the type of sedimentological, mineralogical, soil types and XRD. By analyzing the data obtained from these measurements, the mineral types, distributions, chemical components, and trace elements contained in partially lithified or unconsolidated sediments of the region were determined. The relationship of these data with paleoclimate has been revealed and compared with the Central Anatolian climate records. The Pliocene lake regressed toward the west on account of the progressions in the structural system and geomorphological cycles during the late Pliocene (~ 3 Ma ago) and the underlying Melendiz Waterway created on the lake base. During the Quaternary the Melendiz Stream created heavily influenced by both the neotectonic system and the environment.
The sediments are very poorly sorted in some levels of unconsolidated or partially lithified sediments and paleosol, and poorly sorted in some levels. On the other hand, quartz, feldspar, amphibole, and rock fragments such as metamorphic, volcanic and igneous are commonly observed in paleosol, silty and sandy levels. In XRD measurements, paleosol, silty and sandy levels contain common feldspar, quartz, amphibole, Opal CT and Opal A minerals. The amounts of smectite, chlorite, illite as clay minerals at these levels vary at various levels of the profiles.
The results of these calculations help us to explain the sediment-paleosol formation processes. They are of the Quaternary and primarily Holocene.
 
Keywords: 
Central Anatolia; Holocene sediments; Reconstruction; Melendiz; Paleo climate
 
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