Elsevier

Sedimentary Geology

Volume 281, 15 December 2012, Pages 151-165
Sedimentary Geology

Late-Pleistocene to Holocene sedimentary fills of the Çınarcık Basin of the Sea of Marmara

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sedgeo.2012.09.001Get rights and content

Abstract

A giant RV Marion Dufresne piston core MD01-2425 recovered from the 1276 m-deep Çınarcık Basin of the Sea of Marmara documents characteristics of deep basin sedimentation influenced by large-scale gravity-controlled mass-wasting processes and associated turbidite deposition during the Late Pleistocene to Holocene. A visual lithological description of the core reveals twenty major seismoturbidite layers (> 20 cm thick), intercalated in hemipelagic-type fine-grained calcareous and slightly siliceous clays. The thickness and frequency of the sesimoturbidite layers deposited during the lacustrine period (prior to 12.3 cal ka BP) is much greater than during the Holocene marine period. The sedimentary processes during deposition of seismoturbidites in the basin have been determined in this study using a combination of grain-size parameters. Often the seismoturbidites show strong grain segregation with a sharp boundary between a coarse lower and a homogeneous upper part. The traction carpet deposits formed at the base of a turbulent suspension and were produced in the lower coarse-grained part, whereas the homogeneous upper part was deposited by uniform suspensions following bedload deposition.

Highlights

► We characterize the main lithology of the deep infills of the Sea of Marmara. ► We examine climatic and tectonic imprints on the sedimentary record. ► Twenty seismoturbidites deposited during the Late-Pleistocene to Holocene. ► We determined the depositional processes of seismoturbidites in the Sea of Marmara. ► We examine a connection between mass failure deposits and turbidites.

Introduction

The use of subaqueous sedimentary sequences in marine and lake basins as archives of past earthquake events is part of a newly evolving field of subaqueous paleoseismology (e.g., Beck et al., 1996, Beck et al., 2007, Chapron et al., 1999, Arnaud et al., 2002, Goldfinger et al., 2003, Schnellmann et al., 2005, McHugh et al., 2006, Sarı and Çağatay, 2006, Carrillo et al., 2008). Such studies are important for seismic risk evaluation, providing important information on fault segmentation and recurrence time. An important area of study in subaqueous paleoseismology is the establishment of criteria for distinguishing turbidites of seismic origin from those of other origins, such as storm waves, hyperpycnal flows, gas hydrate dissociation, sediment overloading, volcanic eruptions and floods (Postma et al., 1988, Prior et al., 1989, Nemec, 1990, Mulder and Syvitski, 1995, Beck et al., 1996, Beck et al., 2007, Chapron et al., 1999, Cita and Aloisi, 2000, Nakajima and Kanai, 2000, Shiki et al., 2000, Arnaud et al., 2002, Goldfinger et al., 2003, Schnellmann et al., 2005, Carrillo et al., 2008). Turbidites have been used as proxies for earthquake activity along the northern San Andreas Fault (Goldfinger et al., 2003), in the Cariaco Basin associated to the El Pilar fault system (Carrillo et al., 2008), and in the Mediterranean and Marmara Seas associated with the North Anatolian Fault (Kastens and Cita, 1981, Cita et al., 1996, Beck et al., 2007).

The Sea of Marmara (SoM) lies at the gateway between the Black and Aegean seas in northwest Turkey, and is located on the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) which is a major continental transform boundary between the Eurasian and Anatolian plates (Fig. 1) (Şengör et al., 1985, Şengör et al., 2004, Wong et al., 1995, İmren et al., 2001, Le Pichon et al., 2001, Armijo et al., 2002, Armijo et al., 2005). The SoM consists mainly of a relatively broad (maximum width 45 km) southern shelf, a narrow (maximum width 20 km) northern shelf, and three strike-slip basins up to 1270 m deep. The deep basins from west to east are called Tekirdağ (1133 m), Central (1268 m), and Çınarcık (1276 m) basins, which are separated from each other by Western and Central submarine highs (Fig. 2). The most active northern branch of the NAF, the Main Marmara Fault (Le Pichon et al., 2001), extends beneath the northern SoM from the Gulf of Izmit to Ganos. This fault has created devastating earthquakes, the most recent being the 1999 İzmit earthquake with Mw = 7.4 (e.g., Ambraseys, 2002). The sedimentary sequence of the Late Pleistocene–Holocene in the SoM includes two main units; an upper marine (Unit 2) and a lower lacustrine (Unit 1) unit with the boundary between the two units dated to 12.3 cal ka BP (all ages are calibrated to calendar years) (Çağatay et al., 2000, Çağatay et al., 2003, Çağatay et al., 2009, Sperling et al., 2003, Eriş et al., 2007, Eriş et al., 2011, McHugh et al., 2008). The deep basin sedimentary sequence of the SoM consists predominantly of turbidites of seismic origin, and provides an archive of long-term earthquake activity (McHugh et al., 2006, Sarı and Çağatay, 2006, Beck et al., 2007). For this reason, the SoM is an excellent natural setting for a submarine geological and paleoseismological study, where radiocarbon-dated deep basin sedimentary earthquake records can be matched with the 2500 yr historical records of the Marmara region (Sarı and Çağatay, 2006, McHugh et al., 2008). In the Central Basin, Beck et al. (2007) documented an 8 m-thick homogenite layer in Core MD01-2431, which consists of a 1 m-thick basal layer of mud-clast-rich breccia at the base, 1.5 m-thick coarse sand in the middle and a 5.5 m-thick layer of visually structureless clay at the top.

In this study, we present detailed stratigraphic and sedimentological descriptions and textural properties of a 32.3 m-long RV Marion Dufresne Core MD01-2425 recovered from the Çınarcık Basin of the SoM, involving laser particle-size, magnetic susceptibility and AMS 14C analyses. Our major objectives here are to characterize the main lithology and textures of the post-glacial infills of the SoM that were presumably influenced by seismic activity of the NAF. We also attempt to correlate possible major mass flow events that occurred in the sub-basins of the SoM during the Late Pleistocene to Holocene using high resolution seismic and core data. This correlation suggests that turbidites were generated by historic earthquakes along the NAF.

Section snippets

Bathymetry and morphology of the Çınarcık Basin

The dextral strike-slip tectonics of the NAF (North Anatolian Fault) determines the rhomboidal or wedge-like shape morphologies of the subbasins (the Tekirdag, Central and Çınarcık basins) of the SoM (McKenzie, 1972, Şengör et al., 1985, Şengör et al., 2004, Barka and Kadinsky-Cade, 1988, Görür et al., 1997, Çağatay et al., 2000, Demirbağ et al., 2003, Yılmaz et al., 2009). The Çınarcık Basin is the largest and deepest basin (maximum 1276 m depth) between the branches of the NAF in the east of

Data and methodology

High resolution seismic reflection profiles at a resolution of 3.5 kHz were acquired by chirp sub-bottom profiler onboard R/V ATALANTE during the MARMARASCARPS cruise (Fig. 1). Depths of reflectors below the sea surface were calculated using average water and sediment velocities of 1450 m s 1 and 1550 m s 1 respectively. Calypso core MD01-2425 was recovered from a depth of 1230 m in the Çınacık Basin during the MARMACORE cruise onboard R/V Marion Dufresne (Fig. 1). The 32.3 m long piston core was cut

Core stratigraphy

In this study, we mainly focused on three sediment cores retrieved from the Central and Çınarcık basins (see Fig. 2). Cores MD01-2429 and MD01-2431 from the Central Basin have been previously studied and interpreted by Beck et al. (2007), whereas the 32.3 m long giant piston Core MD01-2425 is analyzed in this study (Fig. 3). Based on the main lithological and textural variations in the core, two sedimentary units can be distinguished as marine Unit-2 and lacustrine Unit-1. The lithostratigraphic

Stratigraphic correlation of seismic lines and the core sections

The most significant imprint of a mass-wasting event has been previously investigated by Beck et al. (2007) from the Central Basin of the SoM. They have documented 8 m of a unique sedimentary event (‘homogenite layer’) that was attributed to a major earthquake of the NAF. However, the effects of tectonic activity are evident from the presence of seismically transparent layers in the seismic data from the other subbasins of the SoM. This transparent acoustic facies is very similar to the

Conclusions

High resolution seismic and core data from three different basins of the Sea of Marmara (Tekirdağ, Central and Çınarcık) have been studied to investigate the impacts of seismic events along the North Anatolian Fault during the Late Pleistocene to Holocene. For this purpose, we mainly focused on two sediment cores retrieved from the Central and Çınarcık basins of the SoM. Detailed correlations between two deep coring sites document sedimentary records of the these basins, then core-to-seismic

Acknowledgments

The MARMACORE and MARMARASCARPS Cruises were performed within the framework of a French–Turkish scientific collaboration dedicated to the seismic risk in the Istanbul and Sea of Marmara region. These investigations were supported by the Turkish TUBITAK, the French INSU-CNRS, and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE). MARMACORE Scientific Team is very grateful to Yvon Balut for successful management of the giant piston corer. We acknowledge the captain of R/V MARION-DUFRESNE and the whole

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