First evidence of a distal early Holocene ash layer in Eastern Mediterranean deep-sea sediments derived from the Anatolian volcanic province

Y. Hamann*, S. Wulf, O. Ersoy, W. Ehrmann, E. Aydar, G. Schmiedl

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    A hitherto unknown distal volcanic ash layer has been detected in a sediment core recovered from the southeastern Levantine Sea (Eastern Mediterranean Sea). Radiometric, stratigraphic and sedimentological data show that the tephra, here termed as S1 tephra, was deposited between 8970 and 8690cal yr BP. The high-silica rhyolitic composition excludes an origin from any known eruptions of the Italian, Aegean or Arabian volcanic provinces but suggests a prevailing Central Anatolian provenance. We compare the S1 tephra with proximal to medial-distal tephra deposits from well-known Mediterranean ash layers and ash fall deposits from the Central Anatolian volcanic field using electron probe microanalyses on volcanic glass shards and morphological analyses on ash particles. We postulate a correlation with the Early Holocene 'Dikkartin' dome eruption of Erciyes Daǧ volcano (Cappadocia, Turkey). So far, no tephra of the Central Anatolian volcanic province has been detected in marine sediment archives in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The occurrence of the S1 tephra in the south-eastern part of the Levantine Sea indicates a wide dispersal of pyroclastic material from Erciyes Daǧ more than 600km to the south and is therefore an important tephrostratigraphical marker in sediments of the easternmost Mediterranean Sea and the adjacent hinterland.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)497-506
    Number of pages10
    JournalQuaternary Research
    Volume73
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2010

    Keywords

    • Cappadocia
    • Erciyes Daǧ
    • Holocene
    • Mediterranean Sea
    • Sapropel S1
    • tephrochronology

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