Cosmogenic Surface Exposure Dating Applications from Turkey; Moraines, Alluvial Fans, Fluvial Terraces, Lava Flows and Incision Rates

We report our work carried out in Turkey, where various Quaternary surfaces and deposits were dated using the cosmogenic surface exposure method. Our most important applications are related to boulders collected from moraines, as they can be used to reconstruct glacier fluctuations and palaeoclimates. We have dated moraines in numerous mountains, mainly within the Taurus Mountain Range along the Mediterranean coastline, where the deposits were primarily formed during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ~20 ka) and to a lesser extent during pre-LGM (~50 ka), Younger Dryas (~12 ka) and the Early Holocene (~10 ka). We also used this method to determine the timing of the abandonment/incision of alluvial fan lobes that were later cut and displaced by the left lateral strike-slip of the Ecemiş Fault. The timing of surface breaking and slip and extension rates were also calculated, permitting the evaluation of the role of these structures in terms of the regional tectonic framework. In another study, abandonment ages of river terraces based on burial and isochron-burial dating with cosmogenic¹⁰Be and²⁶Al yielded the long-term incision rate of the Kızılırmak River (51 m/Ma since 1.9 Ma) as a proxy for the rock uplift and the long-term denudation rate of the Central Anatolia Plateau. Last but not least, by using cosmogenic nuclides, we were able to date basaltic lava flows (~5 to 10 ka) and calculate erosion rates of peculiar landforms locally known as “fairy chimneys” in Cappadocia.