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Karst landscapes in South-Eastern Turkey: potential of cave speleothems to record the Last Glacial Maximum and Holocene climate

Paysages karstiques du sud-est de la Turquie : potentiel des spéléothèmes pour enregistrer le climat du Dernier Maximum Glaciaire et Holocène
Carole Nehme, Aladdin Al, Sabri Karadoǧan, Catherine Kuzucuoǧlu, Edwige Pons-Branchu et Damase Mouralis
p. 147-159

Résumés

Les prospections de terrain sur les flancs Est de la Chaine du Taurus au sud-est de la Turquie ont montré une grande variété de paysages karstiques, tels que poljés, ponors, canyons et cavités multi-étagées. La région d’Anatolie orientale, située sur une marge tectonique active, est drainée par les fleuves Tigre et Euphrate dont certains affluents sont captés par le drainage souterrain. De nombreux systèmes de grottes et poljés abandonnés illustrent cette dynamique karstique liée/ou évoluant avec le drainage superficiel. Dans ce cadre, les grottes de Birkleyn, et de Bozoba (département de Lice) ont été prospectées en vue d’évaluer leur potentiel à la fois géomorphologique et paléoclimatique. Les deux grottes présentent à la fois des dépôts détritiques et des spéléothèmes. De par leur localisation, ces grottes sont des sites propices pour une étude paléoclimatique, telle que l’analyse géochimique et la datation de spéléothèmes. Ainsi, de premières datations U-Th de Bozoba-1 et de Bozoba-2 montrent un début de croissance à 22.4 ± 0.2 ka BP et à 25.1 ± 0.5 ka BP respectivement. Une reprise de croissance de Bozoba-2, datée à 2.8 ± 0.2 ka BP, et de Birk-2 à 0.8 ± 0.2 ka BP, montrent une croissance rapide au cours de l’Holocène tardif. Des analyses géochronologiques et géochimiques vont être menées sur la longueur des stalagmites échantillonnées, dans l’objectif de reconstituer les variations climatiques enregistrées par les versants sud du Taurus oriental au cours du Dernier Maximum Glaciaire et de l’Holocène.

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We are thankful to the INSHS-CNRS for providing funding support for this field investigation. The area around Birkleyn caves being a protected area, legal permission for the study has been given by the Diyarbakır Regional Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Assets, allowing also the collection of stalagmite samples. In addition, we would like to thank Naci AKDEMIR, (teacher from Kocaköy district), Selman TURAN (Director of Culture and Social Affairs of Dicle District Municipality), Haşim EŞSİZ (municipality official), Abdulbaki TUNCA and Sadık LALE (drivers), Merve MARAL and Aydın YALÇIN (Diyarbakır University students) for their help in the Bozoba cave studies and sample collection.

1- Introduction

1The climate across the eastern Mediterranean (EM) is noticeably heterogeneous within a relatively small geographical extension, encompassing the coastal regions of the eastern Mediterranean basin (i.e. the “Levant” and the Fertile Crescent) (fig. 1). As a result, this climatic region corresponds to the north-western part of the Arabian Peninsula, spanning the transition between a temperate Mediterranean climate in the Levant extending north-eastwards, reaching a complex alpine climate corresponding to a mountainous barrier that feeds both the upper Euphrates and Tigris rivers and tributaries. In parallel, from the Levantine coast to the south-eastern region of Turkey, karst landscapes develop over continuous carbonate rocks, thus providing many surface and underground features, such as poljes, dolines, caves, etc.

2In palaeoclimate and geomorphological studies, caves are considered suitable traps for sediments which, otherwise, tend to disappear from the surface by continuous erosional processes. Accordingly, detrital cave infill provides insights about changing depositional processes in the karst and, thus, on the evolution of the cave morphology and hydrology in relation to the regional landscape. In parallel, chemical deposits such as speleothems are one of the most powerful archives for high-resolution regional climatic reconstructions. The main strength of these deposits comes from their ability to be precisely dated by the Uranium (U)-series radiometric method (Verheyden et al., 2022).

3Karst landscapes in the EM result from a complex tectonic evolution along an active margin between three plates (Eurasian in the North, African in the West and Arabian in the South), leading to thrusted, folded, faulted and uplifted mountain ranges (mainly carbonates, sandstones, detritics as well as thrusted Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks). In the EM region, many cave systems and surficial landforms attached to carbonate series, have been recently studied as archives for landscape evolution, for example in caves were deposit dynamics respond to: i) groundwater dynamics in the Judean Plateau (Frumkin & Fischhendler, 2005), ii) long-term Dead-Sea level change (Bookman et al., 2006) and its impact on groundwater (Yechieli et al., 2009) and on surficial drainage (Hassan & Klein, 2002), and iii) fluvial migration in the Mount-Lebanon river network in relation to sea-level changes (Nehme et al., 2016) or to regional rapid uplift (Karadoğan & Kuzucuoğlu, 2019) in active tectonic margins.

4These latter karst features comprise as well, caves or surficial sediments suitable for past climate reconstruction. Other examples are Jeita cave record in central Levant (Verheyden et al., 2008; Cheng et al., 2015), Soreq cave in southern Levant (Bar-Matthews et al., 2019) or the Yammouneh polje lake record in North Mount-Lebanon (Develle et al., 2010; Gasse et al., 2015).

5However, from the Levantine Mountain ranges to the south-eastern Anatolian highlands, the geographic distribution of these cave records together with the chronologic and palaeoclimatic significance of the reconstructed signals, still show important spatial and temporal gaps (fig. 1). Besides, the sensitiveness of the records is also unequal between them, mainly because of the heterogeneity of the EM climate in the region, even over short distances (Ulbrich et al., 2012). This sensitiveness is due, especially, to the role of a complex topography in affecting the climate signals in terms of amplitude, seasonality, and duration. This role is striking in the spatial distribution of modern-day precipitation which shows a high spatio-temporal variability with: i) most of the effective infiltration occurring during winter-spring seasons, and ii) peak values partly controlled by orogenic areas.

6When working on palaeoclimate on the regional scale from the Levantine coast to the Iran mountain region (i.e., roughly, the so-called “Fertile Crescent”), it is necessary to reconstruct sub-regional climatic variability on the basis of a dense network of precisely dated and highly resolved paleoclimate records, taking into account an inherent sensitivity of studied records to precipitation variations. Indeed, past spatio-temporal climate variability in the EM is still poorly documented, mainly because of unevenly distribution of the records (Robinson et al., 2006; Burstyn et al., 2019). This lack of documentation is particularly true in the north-western Syria and south-eastern Turkey, with only a few paleoclimate records collected despite the high karstic potential for speleothem records.

7Only a few recent studies (Karadoğan & Kuzucuoğlu, 2019; Nazik et al., 2019) have been published on the karst landscapes of south-eastern Turkey. These articles describe various types of karst landscapes, their geological evolution, evidencing high speleothem potentials in some cave systems (Karadoğan & Kuzucuoğlu, 2019). In the present study, we present some first results obtained in two newly investigated caves: the Bozoba and Birkleyn caves in south-eastern Turkey. The present article describes our geomorphological investigations and out evaluation for a potential genetic karst model hypothesis, for both sites. In addition, preliminary Uranium-Thorium (U-Th) dates of stalagmites from both caves are presented. These results highlight the potential of these speleothems to date and reconstruct past climate variations in the region. Finally, some perspective for future geomorphological work is presented.

Fig. 1: Map of Eastern Mediterranean.

Fig. 1: Map of Eastern Mediterranean.

The South and South-eastern Turkey, the Levantine coast, the Syrian Desert, the Zagros Mountains, with the main tectonic structures, the distribution of carbonate and evaporite rocks is modified after the World Karst Aquifer Mapping project WoKAM (BGR et al., 2017), and published paleoclimate and paleoenvironment records covering the Pleistocene-Holocene transition period. Records cited in the map are: 1-Soreq cave; 2-Zalmon cave; 3-Peqiin cave; 4-Mizpe Shelagim cave; 5-Jeita cave; 6-Incesu cave; 7-Dim cave; 8-Bozoba cave; 9-Birkleyn cave; 10-Gejkar; 11-Kuna-Ba; 12-Gol-e-Zard; 13-Urmia lake; 14-Van lake; 15-Sağlık peat;16-Ghab; 17-Yammouneh paleolake; 18-Ammiq marsh; 19-Hula; 20-Dead-Sea lake, 21-Lake Neor.

2- Geological, karstic and climatic settings of the South-eastern Taurus range

2.1- Geology

8Today’s structural context of the eastern Anatolian Karst region (fig. 1) is characterized by compressional tectonics, which started at the end of the Oligocene. Compression has been continuing since then, causing the deformation of the Oligocene palaeo-topographies truncating thick limestone units dated Jurassic, Cretaceous and Eocene units (Schildgen et al., 2014), and folding the younger marine to continental Mio-Plio-Pleistocene formations. Today, folded limestone units of various ages (from Cretaceous to Pliocene) are faulted, truncated and eroded (Robertson & Dixon, 1984). These landforms characterize the southern edges of the Mediterranean highland ranges extending from the EM Sea to the North-East direction (Aral Sea), ultimately joining the Iranian folds bordering the Iranian plateaus (Sandvol et al., 2003).

9Compression occurred in two periods. The first one, during the Cretaceous, generated the trusting of the Anatolian plate over the Arabian plate, causing a “mélange suture zone” presenting mixed Palaeozoic rocks (including gneiss, serpentines, metallic inclusions etc.), partly intricated with Permian, Triassic and early Cretaceous formations (Robertson & Dixon, 1984). The thrusted geological units form a compact massif named the “Taurus- Bitlis–Zagros” suture zone (fig. 1). After the thrusting emplacement, late Cretaceous and Eocene and Miocene seas deposited limestones in the foreland of the Arabian plate.

10Since the middle Miocene and continuing today, regional compression of the south-eastern Anatolia is caused by the Arabian plate rotary displacement along the Anatolian plate. This structural compression is characterized by: i) the thrusting of the Anatolian plate over the Arabian plate (fig. 2), and ii) the westward displacement of the Anatolian plate in direction of the South-Aegean and African plate (Kuzucuoğlu et al., 2019). These movements generate folding of the Arabian plate sedimentary cover, whose intensity increases toward the Anatolian plate, with fold axes paralleling the WSW rotation movement of the Arabian plate (Karadoğan et al., 2010). The limestones hardness and thickness diminishing along the end of the Miocene, salinity (evaporation) rose during the Pliocene together with deposition of clay and sand in emerging areas (i.e. the Pliocene-Pleistocene Şelmo formation). Meantime, erosion of the mountains in direction of the southward emerging forelands, expanded gravelly pebbles and sands deposits while silts filled-in depressed areas in the forelands.

Fig. 2: Cross-section showing the Karacadağ Plio-Pleistocene basaltic shield volcano at the center of the South-eastern region of Turkey, in the NWW direction.

Fig. 2: Cross-section showing the Karacadağ Plio-Pleistocene basaltic shield volcano at the center of the South-eastern region of Turkey, in the NWW direction.

The section illustrates the structural context of Bozoba cave in the folded Cenozoic limestone piedmont north of Diyarbakir City (River Tigris drainage area).

2.2- Karst

11Since the end of the Miocene, the uplift trend and the consequent sea level variations on the regional scale triggered the Tigris river headwaters as well as the mid-Euphrates drainage basins to adapt to rapid and continuous uplift (Nicoll, 2010). In folded areas in particular, the geomorphology of the karstic landscapes was particularly affected. These dynamics caused the surficial karstic weathering of the limestone units, and the development of multi-level underground cave systems, especially across and along the fold axes. From the northern folds in the highlands, to the southern, slightly folded limestones dominating northern Syria, are incised by stream valleys (“cluses”) in thrusted anticlines, while backward erosion of streams through crests developed relief inversions. As a result, surface river networks evidence: i) surficial river captures and diversions, as well as, ii) captures through karstic underground networks, as well as, iii) impact of uplift steps on underground networks, are well-illustrated in the Birkleyn cave system in the Lice district (Karadoğan & Kuzucuoğlu, 2019).

2.3- Climate

12Accordingly, the climate of the south-eastern Anatolian region is dominated by westerlies winds in connection with the North Atlantic Oscillation (Rogers, 1997) and the Siberian High Systems (Alpert et al., 2004; Labban et al., 2021). However, the spatial variability of the precipitation distribution responds to a specific geography (fig. 3): the western mountains (the Amanos range in Syria to the Bingöl mountains) capture Mediterranean cyclonic rain, the effect of which diminishes both: i) northwards, as the eastern Taurus mountains captures the westerlies humidity, and ii) westwards, with the rain-shadow effect generated East of the Amanos range.

13The distance eastward from the Mediterranean Sea, causes the rapid diminution of the westerlies’ humidity. A second rain/snow capture occurs over the whole Turkish-Iranian Taurus range North of the region, which provokes the highest humidity South of Lake Van. Meanwhile, a dry climate and drought occurrences increase southward in direction of central Syria and central Irak (i.e. toward northern Mesopotamia). This latter (and largest) part of south-eastern Anatolia, being mostly drained by karstic networks, is dominated by dry/semi-dry limestone landscapes, karst capturing surface rain and redistributing water as sources aligned along geologic disruptions.

14After the Euphrates river, the Tigris river is the second most important river of the south-eastern region of Turkey. Its annual discharge is dominated by seasonal effects of i) abundant snowfall during winter in the mountainous upper part of the basin, and ii) extremely dry summers in the lower part of the basin which opens South. In the mountains, the snow cover lasts up to five months each year. In springtime, the combination of snowmelt and seasonal precipitation on the Taurus Mountain slopes generates large spring floods in the valleys of the Tigris and its tributaries. Many valleys of the Tigris basin (fig. 2) incise wide outcrops of thick limestone series whose surfaces exhibit numerous karst surficial features (dolines, poljes), while cave systems develop underground. Today, the upper reaches of some valleys have become dry because the Tigris stream-line system migrated downslope as a response to the rapid and continuous uplift dynamics of the area.

Fig. 3: Climate of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Fig. 3: Climate of the Eastern Mediterranean.

(A) Map of the Mediterranean Basin, with the main wind trajectories (blue arrows) influencing the Eastern Mediterranean region (red rectangle). (B) Map of the mean annual precipitation distribution based on the Köppen-Geiger climate classification (Peel et al., 2007).

3- Representativity of the paleoclimate studies from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene periods

15The north-western part of the Arabian Peninsula, a region stretching from the Negev Desert, the Levantine coast to the south-eastern Taurus Mountains, has been subject to many speleothem studies addressing the late Pleistocene-Holocene period. However, only a few are well-dated (Cheng et al., 2015). In addition, well-dated records cover only partly this period, and with different temporal resolutions. The presentation of these results is exposed in the following chapter. Their geographic distribution in the EM is connected to the disposition of the mountain ranges paralleling the coastal Mediterranean region from the Levant to Mediterranean Anatolia (fig. 1). Some of the published cave records from these sites are located in fig. 1, along the coast and at low altitudes. These are, from North to South: i) the high-resolution Jeita cave record in Lebanon (Verheyden et al., 2008; Cheng et al., 2015), ii) the low-resolution Zalmon cave (Keinan et al., 2019), high-resolution Peqiin cave records (Bar-Matthews et al., 2003) in northern Galilee and Mizpe Shelagim cave in Mount Hermon (Ayalon et al., 2013), iii) the cave composite records such as Soreq cave (Bar-Matthews & Ayalon, 2004; Bar-Matthews et al., 2019, Burstyn et al., 2022) located at mid-altitudes of the Judean Plateaus, cover the late Pleistocene and Holocene periods without hiatus.

16Apart from speleothems, other records allow the study of palaeoenvironmental evolution in the area. These are based on a few lake or marsh records located in the rain shadow of the Levantine Mountains, such as: i) the Dead Sea record (Kolodny et al., 2005; Torfestein et al., 2013, Neugebauer et al., 2014), ii) the Hula basin record North of the sea of Galilee (van Zeist & Bottema, 2009), iii) the Ammiq marsh core in the Beqaa plain (Lebanon) (Hajjar et al., 2010; Jeffers & Willis, 2016), and iv) the Ghab valley in north-western Syria (Yasuda et al., 2000) and the Kahramanmaraș valley in Turkey (Woldring et al., 2019; Şekeryapan et al., 2020).

17While the Dead Sea records provide a highly resolved paleoclimatic record for the southern part of the Levantine inner basin, other records located in central and northern inner plains along the eastern Mediterranean, deliver rather records of mid- to low-resolution.

18Generally, caves in Mediterranean high-mountain areas have delivered records covering the end of the Pleistocene-Holocene period, such as: the Mizpe Shelagim cave record in Mount Hermon (Ayalon et al., 2013), the Incesu and Dim cave records in the central Mediterranean Taurus range, Turkey (Ünal-Imer et al., 2015; Jacobson et al., 2021), and the central Mediterranean Taurus range, Turkey (Erkan et al., 2022). This is also the case of speleothems in caves of the Aladağlar in central Anatolia (Ulusoy et al., 2014) which, however, also record older Pleistocene. Similarly, the Yammouneh paleolake record in the high plain of the Bekaa in northern Lebanon (Develle et al., 2010) spans the last glacial and Holocene periods. This record presents a solid chronology associated with a continuous palaeohydrological variability of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, whereas both Dim cave record (in the southern, Mediterranean, flanks of the central Taurus) and Inçesu cave record (in south central Anatolia on the northern flanks of the central Taurus span partially the Holocene period, and present a few growth gaps.

19Along the eastern wing of the Fertile Crescent (eastern Taurus to the Zagros mountains) (fig. 1), a few lake records span the Pleistocene-Holocene transition period, such as: i) in Turkey, from West to East: Sağlık peat in the Kahramanmaraș province (Şekeryapan et al., 2020), Hazar Lake, South of Malatya (Biltekin et al., 2018), Söğütlü marshes near Nemrut volcano (Bottema, 1995), Hazar Lake and Van Lake (Wick et al., 2003; Litt et al., 2014), and ii) in Iran: Mirabad Lake (Griffiths et al., 2001; Stevens et al., 2006); Urmia Lake (Djamali et al., 2008; Mirzapour et al., 2021), Neor Lake (Sharifi et al., 2015).

20Out of the sites cited above, the well-dated records that span parts or the whole of the Holocene period are the Gejkar (Flohr et al., 2017), Kuna-Ba (Sinha et al., 2019) and Gol-e-Zard (Carolin et al., 2019) cave records, as well as the Van Lake varve-based record (Wick et al., 2003) and Sağlık peat in the Kahramanmaraș province (Şekeryapan et al., 2020). This latter peat core, retrieved in a tectonic basin located at the junction between the Dead-Sea Basin and the south-eastern Anatolian Faults, spans the 22 ka to 8 ka cal BP period. In this core, the dating has been carefully constrained by measuring the impact of karstic CaCO3 enrichment processes.

4- Two new karst sites in South-eastern Anatolia: description of the studied sites

21In south-eastern Turkey, the Levantine highlands continue with the Amanos range, which joins the southern branch of the eastern Anatolian Taurus, in the area of the Kahramanmaraş plateaus where the northernmost part of the Great Rift Valley joins the Anatolian plate tectonic network (Kuzucuoğlu et al., 2019). Further eastwards, the southernmost part of the eastern Anatolian Taurus passes north of the Nemrut Dağ (Adiyaman) in direction of the mountains south of Lake Van (fig. 1). The limestone outcropping in this region is karstic in many plateaus (e.g. Gaziantep, Urfa and Mardin plateaus) and folds north of the Karacadağ volcano (fig. 2). The Birkleyn karstic system (Karadoğan & Kuzucuoğlu, 2019) and the Bozoba caves are located in this “folded belt" (Okay, 2008) which designs a curve north of the Urfa in direction of Siirt plateaus (Nicoll, 2010) (fig. 2).

22The Bozoba cave (fig. 4A) is located in the Dicle district. It comprises a one-level cave, accessible via a flat doline or a small polje (figs. 4B & 4C). The cave consists of a one dome chamber filled with detrital deposits carpeting its floor and covered with flowstone, while elongated and dome stalagmites also occur in many sites within the chamber (fig. 4D). Bozoba cave represents a shallow cave system connected to a doline or a small polje (fig. 3B). The Bozoba cave, now no longer active, may have been originally an active ponor system (fig. 2). The Bozoba Polje-ponors system is located in a high tectonic activity where compression, deformation and uplift of the limestones occurred (fig. 2). In this context, the surficial and subterranean drainage has been re-routed toward a lower altitude, transporting cave detrital deposits in suffusion channels (which are visible on site at the edge of the chamber), and thus creating deeper conduits below the present Bozoba cave. The Birkleyn caves are located in the Korha mountains, north of Lice town. Springing into the overground Birkleyn river, the system (fig. 5A) comprises three distinct levels (Karadoğan et al. 2010; Karadoğan & Kuzucuoğlu, 2019). The uppermost level (fig. 5B) is close to the surface of a limestone ridge over which a super-imposed dry valley testifies for an ancient surface drainage system (fig. 5B). This surficial valley became unactive after the surface drainage was re-routed downwards to a second level (fig. 5C). Later, a second incision led the underground circulation to adapt within the karstic limestone system with a third (the lowest) cave level (fig. 5d). Presently, today’s spring of the Birkleyn stream is a resurgence resulting from the diversion of the permanent surface river into an active cave (belonging to the third and younger karstic level) which is located at the same (low) altitudinal level as the river (fig. 5e).

23As noted above, the three cave-levels display a similar E-W direction paralleling the dry valley fossilized on the top surface (fig. 5a) and perpendicular to the anticline fold axis, an orientation pointing to a tectonically controlled superimposition. While the upper (fig. 5b) and mid (fig. 5c) levels are non-active cave systems filled with detrital material and breakdown deposits associated with a variety of speleothems, the lowest cave level (fig. 5e) is still active with a permanent stream diverging the Birkleyn river into an underground drain.

24Fig. 4: Set of photographs of the studied site of Bozoba cave.

(A) Landscape context showing lapiaz landforms on high hills. (B) Doline to which the Bozoba cave system is related. (C) entrance of Bozoba cave, a former ponor system connected to a small polje. (D) speleothems and concretions inside the Bozoba cave. (E) photo in-situ of Bozoba-2 stalagmite.

Fig. 5: Set of four photographs and a map illustrating the studied site of Birkleyn caves system.

Fig. 5: Set of four photographs and a map illustrating the studied site of Birkleyn caves system.

(A) Map and associated cross-section of the Birkleyn cave system, illustrate the location of system as well as its extension (red-colored). Stalagmites have been sampled in cave 4: (B) upperpart of the karstic surface below cave 1; (C) entrance to the second (middle) cave level of the Birkleyn system (cave 2). Note that cave 4 on the map is in the same altitudinal level than cave 3; (D) north-east of the map, a photo of the resurgence, mid-slope, of the Dibni river that springs eastwards out from the lowest level of cave system (cave 3). (E) photograph taken at the side of the lowest stream bed of the Birkleyn system (cave 3). Source of the map: Karadoğan et al., (2010) and Karadoğan & Kuzucuoğlu (2019).

5- Methods: speleothems sampling and U-Th dating

25During the prospection (May 2022), the search for stalagmites to be sampled focused in the vadose galleries of Birkleyn and Bozoba caves. Given the variety of active stalagmites covering the fallen blocks in the Birkleyn cave systems, only the mid-cave level was sampled in June 2022. The Birk 1-2-3 samples form a set of 3 distinct stalagmites. Birk 2 is 35 cm in length (fig. 6). This stalagmite was active when sampled. Birk-1 and Birk-3 stalagmites are 10 and 15 cm long, respectively. Only Birk-2 was sampled for dating, at 5, 15 and 30 cm from the top (fig. 6) in the aim of determining their growth period.

26In Bozoba cave, two stalagmites were sampled in June 2022. Bozoba-1 corresponds to a 37 cm long stalagmite, broken before being sampled. Bozoba-2 is a stalagmite located in-between calcite draperies, and close to the wall of the chamber. This stalagmite was still active when sampled. Displaying a length of 87 cm, it was sampled at four spots, positioned at 87, 70, 56 and 12 cm down from the top (fig. 6), to determine the period of growth of Bozoba-2 stalagmite.

27In total, eight calcite samples (>100 mg) were collected for 230Th/234U dating to determine: i) the minimum growth age for Bozoba-1, and ii) the growth period of Birk-3 and Bozoba-2. After dissolution of the samples and the addition of 229Th-233U spike, a chemical separation and purification of the U and Th fractions were performed following Pons-Branchu et al., (2014). Isotopic ratios were measured using the Neptune Plus Plasma multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer installed at LSCE/IPSL (Gif sur Yvette, France). Age correction (230Th from detrital contamination) was performed on the basis of a fixed 230Th/232Th ratio for the detrital fraction. Finally, the corrected ages are given in ka before measurement year (2022) (tab. 1).

Fig. 6: U-Th ages reported on the three studied stalagmites.

Fig. 6: U-Th ages reported on the three studied stalagmites.

Bozoba-1, Bozoba-2 and Birk-2, associated with interpretations on stalagmite growth before and after the ages.

Tab. 1: U and Th content, isotopic activity ratios and U/Th ages of speleothem samples from Bozoba and Birkleyn caves (Lice Province, Turkey).

Tab. 1: U and Th content, isotopic activity ratios and U/Th ages of speleothem samples from Bozoba and Birkleyn caves (Lice Province, Turkey).
The position of each sample on the stratigraphic column (depth) is given in cm relative to the top (the top being active, its age is assumed to be 0. Uranium isotope ratios are given using 234UM = [234U/238U]−1)*l03 234UT as the value at the initial time . Ages are given as raw ages before measurement (red column) and as corrected ages (green), assuming a detrital fractionation of (230Th/232Th) = 1.25±0.75).

6- Results and discussion

6.1- Ages of the stalagmites

28The Birk-2 stalagmite displays low U contents (between 0.066 ± 0.0005 to 0.221 ± 0.002 ppm), and a relatively low 232Th content (< 6.18 ± 0.005 ppb). Corrected ages suggest continuous growth between 0.78 ± 0.22 and 0.08 ± 0.15 ka BP, thus covering a very recent period from 1177 A.D. until 2022, the year of its sampling. However, due to the young age of the stalagmite, the activity ratios (230Th/232Th) are very low. Age corrections are large, so that age error bars of results are large. Accordingly, further study will include more levels, and a correction using StrutAge model will be proposed to better constrain error bars.

29Stalagmites from the Bozoba 1 and 2 caves, display U content between 0.115 ± 0.001 and 0.264 ± 0.002 ppm. Detrital content for these speleothems is low, with low 232Th content, while 230Th/232Th activity ratios are relatively high. In Bozoba cave, Bozoba-1 stalagmite (12 cm long) gives a basal age of 22.45 ± 0.19 ka BP. Aside Bozoba-1 stalagmite, another stalagmite, Bozoba-2 (86 cm long: fig. 6) has grown. Its basal age is 25.09 ± 0.46 ka BP. In Birklein cave, a 12 cm long stalagmite delivered younger ages, ranging from 2.74 ± 0.25 to 0.86 ± 0.16 ka BP, i.e. spanning the late Holocene period. Further studies will allow identifying potential growth hiatuses.

6.2- Speleothem growth during the LaST Glacial Maximum

30While Bozoba-2 stalagmite started to grow at ~25 ka (fig. 6), the ages distribution in this stalagmite indicates that a growth stop is more likely to have occurred 10 cm above the basal age of 25 ka, with a long hiatus until the growth of the adjoining stalagmite which started around ~3 ka (fig. 6). Bozoba-1 stalagmite started to grow at ~22 ka (fig. 6). It shows a potential to cover a time-period extending into the Holocene, albeit with some expected hiatuses.

31The growth of both Bozoba stalagmites started during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) c. - 26.5 to 19.5 ka BP (Clark et al., 2009). This period is known for a pronounced sea-level minimum associated with the global ice sheets maximum extent over northern Europe, associated with a permafrost covering most of the continent (Lindgren et al., 2016). With too cold temperatures or too dry conditions, these climatic conditions inhibited the vegetation cover activity as well as the effective hydrological recharge of epikarst zones and, consequently, the growth of stalagmites in Europe during the LGM. Indeed, out of 176 speleothem studies in Europe, only six show growth during the LGM (Lechleitner et al., 2018; Kern et al., 2019). Among these studies, only three covering this cold/dry period are reported: i) Pindal cave, Northern Spain (Moreno et al., 2010), ii) partially in Villars cave, South-western France (Genty et al., 2010), iii) a composite speleothem in Sieben Hengste cave, Swiss Alps (Luetscher et al., 2015).

32Conversely, in Turkey, several studies showed speleothem growth during the LGM period: i) Sofular cave in north-western Turkey, with humidity mainly coming from the Black Sea (Fleitmann et al., 2009), ii) the Karaca cave in northeastern Turkey (Rowe et al., 2012), iii) the coastal Mediterranean area, with the Dim-3 stalagmite from Dim cave (Ünal-Imer et al., 2015) in the Antalya region where rains are fed by Mediterranean cyclonic circulation, and iv) the central Taurus, East of the Konya Plain (Ulusoy et al., 2014), where most samples dated belong to the LGM.

33More specifically in the Konya Plain, located in central Anatolian region (Kuzucuoğlu, 2019), the 4500 km2 wide floor of this karstic plain at c. 1000 m asl was occupied, by several lake rise pulses during the LGM. A first rise at 28 ka cal BP was followed by five further pulses occurred between 26.5 and 17.3 ka cal BP. Some of these rises lasted 1500 yrs long, some others 800–600 years long. Several causes have been suggested to explain such huge lake water bodies in central Anatolia during the “dry” LGM: i) low evaporation due to cloud cover, ii) decrease of evapotranspiration rates and increase in catchment runoff, iii) extreme snowfall and/or temperature instability over the Taurus Highlands and summits favoring glacier melting, and iv) spring water input and modifications of water exchanges in the underground network.

34In the eastern part of the Taurus and extending to the northern Zagros, the available continuous records spanning the LGM, are based on the biologic and mineral analyses of sediment cores from Van Lake (Litt et al., 2014), and Urmia Lake (Djamali et al., 2008). The multiproxy study in both lakes suggests, during the LGM: i) an increased runoff and/or decreased evaporation in Urmia, hypothesized by a lower evapotranspiration of steppe‐like vegetation that might have increased stream flow into the lakes and ii) drier conditions during glacial periods, on the basis of the AP/NAP pollen proxy record. Another pollen study by El-Moslimany (1987) in Lake Zeribar (North Zagros) precises the dryness character of the late glacial climatic period and invoke a higher seasonal climate with cold winters and hot/dry summers, though not necessarily low annual precipitation.

35Despite the general drier conditions suggested from lake records in the northern Zagros, the growth start of Bozoba stalagmites indicates a water recharge in the epikarst indicative of climate conditions in the folded limestone plateaus south of the eastern Taurus mountains, favourable enough for speleothem growth during the LGM. The central Anatolian region provides a striking example of wet environmental settings, which could be on climatic origin. Furthermore, speleothem growth in Dim cave (Taurus mountains), Sofular cave (NW Turkey) and Karaça cave (NE Turkey) indicate effective infiltration conditions with high water availability. Such conditions could have prevailed even in the south-eastern Anatolian region during the growth of Bozoba speleothems. Further investigations in Bozoba records will help decipher growth periods and climatic trends through the reconstruction of geochemical proxies.

36More to the South, the Levantine coastal area and mountains, influenced directly by the Mediterranean climate, comprises paleoclimate records spanning the LGM period, but show an equivocal trend of the climate during the Marine Isotope Stage 2: the Dead-Sea lake levels reached their high-stands during the LGM with a relative higher Precipitation – Evaporation (P-E) balance until 17 ka (Torfstein et al., 2013). The composite record of Soreq as well as the stalagmites of Peqiin cave, located nearby in the southern Levant, cover continuously all the LGM period and induce favourable conditions of growth. However, the Mizpe Shelagim record located in the Mount-Hermon at 2180 m altitude indicates a growth interruption during the LGM (Ayalon et al., 2013). In Lebanon, the climate trend during the LGM is still unclear: the Jeita cave record, located at 100 m altitude spans the last 20 ka with stable isotope and trace elements proxies suggesting a relatively wet conditions during the late glacial (Cheng et al., 2015). Unpublished records of Kassarat cave (Nehme, 2013), located at 10 km south of Jeita cave, show that stalagmite KTstm2 grew from ~32 to ~17 ka. While both cave records located at low altitude show speleothem growth during the MIS 2, conversely, the Yammouneh pollen lake record located at 1360 m altitude clearly indicates an open steppic vegetation cover, reflecting a dry climate in high mountainous areas (Develle et al., 2010).

6.3- Late Holocene growth in Bozoba and Birkleyn stalagmite

37Regarding the Holocene period, both Bozoba and Birkleyn stalagmites cover the late Holocene period with Bozoba-1 spanning the last ~3 ka and Birk-2 spanning the last 800 years.

38The Bozoba-2 stalagmite in Bozoba cave shows a high growth rate of 4.1 mm/a from ~3 ka to ~2 ka BP and 3.8 mm/a from ~2 to ~0.8 ka BP, indicating a high and fast effective recharge in the Bozoba karst system. After ~0.8 ka BP, the growth rate dropped to 1.4 mm/a, suggesting a lower effective recharge during the Little Ice Age (LIA) and Contemporaneous Era (CE). The Birk-2 stalagmite from Birkleyn cave shows an average growth rate of 3.6 mm/a. Still, this stalagmite is less well-resolved chronologically because of large age uncertainties; so that it has not yet been possible to decipher a precise growth trend for the last 800 years. The regional climate during the late Holocene (4 ka to present-time) depicts a trend towards dryness, albeit with some persistent wet pulses in some areas in the great EM region. Sinha et al. (2019) show an increase in megadrought events after ~3 ka in north-western Irak, in concordance with the Gejkar record, that triggered the decline of the Assyrian Empire. In north-eastern Anatolian region, lake Van show a dryness trend in concordance with lake records in the Iranian Zagros mountains (e.g. Mirabad, Zeribar lakes), but not entirely in phase with Lake Neor trace elements record, located along the Caspian shores (Sharifi et al., 2015). Some wet pulses are still persistent in some lake records as well as in both Jeita and Soreq speleothems in the Levantine coast after ~1.5 ka. Even though, a general dry climate picture after 4 ka arises from the archives studied in the Fertile Crescent, while the growth rates of Bozoba stalagmite seems to show rather higher effective infiltration conditions. More geochemical investigations are needed to depict precisely the climate trend in the Dicle district, south-eastern part of the Taurus range.

6.4- Correspondence with the development of the Neolithic in South-eastern Anatolia

39The ages of Bozoba-1, Bozoba-2 and Birk-2 stalagmites, covering the LGM and late Holocene are contemporaneous to the periods of early and late human settlements in this region. Indeed, these Taurus-fed valleys in the southeastern region of Turkey have been occupied very early by Pre-Pottery Neolithic cultures appearing at ca. 11,500 years cal BP. Among the very many sites now excavated in the region, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites of Çayönü, Körtik Tepe, Hallan Çemi (Özdoğan et al., 2011) can be cited. Newly excavated sites in the Urfa limestone plateaus, evidence strong cultural and behavior changes since before the Younger Dryas (Karahan Tepe, Göbekli Tepe etc.). Therefore, reconstructing the climate change prior and during the time of this early-human evolution toward settling, managing resources and developing complex social organization in the Fertile crescent, is part of researches about the possible role and relationships between (i) past climate conditions and variabilities in the South-eastern Taurus limestone folds and plateaus, and (ii) climatic data during these changes, which may have impacted human behaviors and relationships with nature.

6.5- Prospective of future work about landscape evolution

40Recent field investigations in Bozoba and Birkleyn caves, show a high-potential for conducting future studies in paleoclimate reconstruction but also in the field of geomorphology and landscape evolution. An earlier genetic model with a relative chronology approach was proposed in Karadoğan et al. (2010) for Birkleyn caves, placing the evolution of older (higher) cave level into the Pleistocene period (Karadoğan & Kuzucuoğlu, 2019). In this study, the ages of the stalagmites give an upper age of the calcite deposition in both caves.

41In both caves, the formation of stalagmites seems to have occurred at the later stage of the cave morphogenesis, when both caves were evolving from phreatic-like conditions to vadose conditions. These field observations hypothetically suggest that both caves were active conduits, later filled with detrital deposits when connected to the regional drainage system, i.e. the Bibni-Birkleyn Çayı (stream) in the case of the Birkleyn caves, or of the active polje draining surficial flux into the Bozoba ponor (now no-longer active). Both caves were under phreatic conditions with saturated conduits during early- to mid-Pleistocene (Karadoğan & Kuzucuoğlu, 2019). Once inactive, both cave systems evolved under vadose conditions with unsaturated conduits, detrital deposits being suffused downwards, and calcite formation being precipitated inside both caves.

42More detailed geomorphological investigation inside Birkleyn and Bozoba caves is needed as a future research study, in order to characterise the stages of karstogenesis, together with geomorphological mapping, identification of correlative deposits for dating the stages of cave infilling, and for relating the genesis stages with the geological history of the region.

7- Conclusion

43Field investigations in the karst area of south-eastern Turkey shows a high potential for such landscape to provide valuable data for geomorphology and paleoclimate studies. Many surficial and underground morphologies are indeed visible and accessible along the Tigris valley and its tributaries in the south-eastern Anatolian region of Turkey. Here, the landscape records interactions between active uplift and the response of fluvial systems via re-routing the surficial drainage by developing karstic networks in limestones, using the karst that produced captures and shortcuts. As an illustration of this potential, the Birkleyn and Bozoba caves presented in this article, preserve detrital sediments and speleothems, both deposit types useful as geochronological markers for past landscape stages and past climate changes. Preliminary exploration and observation evidence that both caves are suitable sites for palaeoclimate researches in these important medium territories extending between the low limestone plateaus dominating the northern Mesopotamia drainage area (e.g. the Urfa and Diyarbakir plateaus), at the southern feet of the high eastern Anatolian mountain barrier. The first dates obtained from the stalagmites from both caves are indicative of a calcite growth during the LGM and Holocene. Consequently, geochronological and geochemical analyses are planned to be conducted in the next future, as sampled material are now available for reconstructing climate changes since the LGM and the Holocene in the region.

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Table des illustrations

Titre Fig. 1: Map of Eastern Mediterranean.
Légende The South and South-eastern Turkey, the Levantine coast, the Syrian Desert, the Zagros Mountains, with the main tectonic structures, the distribution of carbonate and evaporite rocks is modified after the World Karst Aquifer Mapping project WoKAM (BGR et al., 2017), and published paleoclimate and paleoenvironment records covering the Pleistocene-Holocene transition period. Records cited in the map are: 1-Soreq cave; 2-Zalmon cave; 3-Peqiin cave; 4-Mizpe Shelagim cave; 5-Jeita cave; 6-Incesu cave; 7-Dim cave; 8-Bozoba cave; 9-Birkleyn cave; 10-Gejkar; 11-Kuna-Ba; 12-Gol-e-Zard; 13-Urmia lake; 14-Van lake; 15-Sağlık peat;16-Ghab; 17-Yammouneh paleolake; 18-Ammiq marsh; 19-Hula; 20-Dead-Sea lake, 21-Lake Neor.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/quaternaire/docannexe/image/18304/img-1.png
Fichier image/png, 194k
Titre Fig. 2: Cross-section showing the Karacadağ Plio-Pleistocene basaltic shield volcano at the center of the South-eastern region of Turkey, in the NWW direction.
Légende The section illustrates the structural context of Bozoba cave in the folded Cenozoic limestone piedmont north of Diyarbakir City (River Tigris drainage area).
URL http://journals.openedition.org/quaternaire/docannexe/image/18304/img-2.png
Fichier image/png, 171k
Titre Fig. 3: Climate of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Légende (A) Map of the Mediterranean Basin, with the main wind trajectories (blue arrows) influencing the Eastern Mediterranean region (red rectangle). (B) Map of the mean annual precipitation distribution based on the Köppen-Geiger climate classification (Peel et al., 2007).
URL http://journals.openedition.org/quaternaire/docannexe/image/18304/img-3.png
Fichier image/png, 703k
Légende (A) Landscape context showing lapiaz landforms on high hills. (B) Doline to which the Bozoba cave system is related. (C) entrance of Bozoba cave, a former ponor system connected to a small polje. (D) speleothems and concretions inside the Bozoba cave. (E) photo in-situ of Bozoba-2 stalagmite.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/quaternaire/docannexe/image/18304/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 1,1M
Titre Fig. 5: Set of four photographs and a map illustrating the studied site of Birkleyn caves system.
Légende (A) Map and associated cross-section of the Birkleyn cave system, illustrate the location of system as well as its extension (red-colored). Stalagmites have been sampled in cave 4: (B) upperpart of the karstic surface below cave 1; (C) entrance to the second (middle) cave level of the Birkleyn system (cave 2). Note that cave 4 on the map is in the same altitudinal level than cave 3; (D) north-east of the map, a photo of the resurgence, mid-slope, of the Dibni river that springs eastwards out from the lowest level of cave system (cave 3). (E) photograph taken at the side of the lowest stream bed of the Birkleyn system (cave 3). Source of the map: Karadoğan et al., (2010) and Karadoğan & Kuzucuoğlu (2019).
URL http://journals.openedition.org/quaternaire/docannexe/image/18304/img-5.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 627k
Titre Fig. 6: U-Th ages reported on the three studied stalagmites.
Légende Bozoba-1, Bozoba-2 and Birk-2, associated with interpretations on stalagmite growth before and after the ages.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/quaternaire/docannexe/image/18304/img-6.png
Fichier image/png, 1,2M
Titre Tab. 1: U and Th content, isotopic activity ratios and U/Th ages of speleothem samples from Bozoba and Birkleyn caves (Lice Province, Turkey).
URL http://journals.openedition.org/quaternaire/docannexe/image/18304/img-7.png
Fichier image/png, 17k
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Référence papier

Carole Nehme, Aladdin Al, Sabri Karadoǧan, Catherine Kuzucuoǧlu, Edwige Pons-Branchu et Damase Mouralis, « Karst landscapes in South-Eastern Turkey: potential of cave speleothems to record the Last Glacial Maximum and Holocene climate »Quaternaire, vol. 34/3 | 2023, 147-159.

Référence électronique

Carole Nehme, Aladdin Al, Sabri Karadoǧan, Catherine Kuzucuoǧlu, Edwige Pons-Branchu et Damase Mouralis, « Karst landscapes in South-Eastern Turkey: potential of cave speleothems to record the Last Glacial Maximum and Holocene climate »Quaternaire [En ligne], vol. 34/3 | 2023, mis en ligne le 06 octobre 2023, consulté le 16 février 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/quaternaire/18304 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/quaternaire.18304

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Auteurs

Carole Nehme

UMR 6266 (IDEES), CNRS, Université de Rouen Normandie, 7 rue Thomas Becket, FR-76781, MONT SAINT-AIGNAN cedex. Email: carole.nehme@univ-rouen.fr

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Aladdin Al

Dicle Üniversity, Ziya Gökalp Eğitim Faculty, Coğrafya Eğitimi Anabilim Dalı, TR- DIYARBAKIR. Email: skaradogan@gmail.com

Sabri Karadoǧan

Dicle Üniversity, Ziya Gökalp Eğitim Faculty, Coğrafya Eğitimi Anabilim Dalı, TR- DIYARBAKIR. Email: skaradogan@gmail.com

Catherine Kuzucuoǧlu

UMR 8591 (LGP), CNRS, Université de Paris 1, 2 rue Henri Dunant, FR-94320, THIAIS. Email: catherine.kuzu@gmail.com

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Edwige Pons-Branchu

UMR 8212 (LSCE/IPSL), CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Site de l’Orme des Merisiers, FR-91191, GIF-SUR-YVETTE. Email: edwige.pons-branchu@lsce.ipsl.fr

Damase Mouralis

UMR 6266 (IDEES), CNRS, Université de Rouen Normandie, 7 rue Thomas Becket, FR-76781, MONT SAINT-AIGNAN cedex. Email: damase.mouralis@univ-rouen.fr

Articles du même auteur

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