New palaeolimnological record from West Anatolia (Paleo-Kuleönü Lake) provides new information on the activity of the Gölcük volcanism and the distribution of the Santorini Minoan eruption

Abstract

Anatolia, which had active volcanoes during the Pleistocene and Holocene periods, was also influenced by volcanic eruptions around the Eastern Mediterranean. Therefore, tephrochronology is an important research topic in palaeoenvironmental studies conducted in Anatolia. This study focuses on the geochemical characteristics, chronologies and source areas of six different tephra layers identified in a 16 m sediment core obtained from Paleo-Kuleönü Lake in the Lake District of West Anatolia. Whole-rock geochemistry is used to determine the geochemical characteristics and source of the tephra layers, micro X-ray fluorescence analysis is used to determine relative element changes throughout the cores, and ¹⁴C analysis is performed to establish the chronologies. The geochemistry of the Paleo-Kuleönü Lake tephra layers is consistent with the Gölcük volcanism located in West Anatolia province and the Minoan eruption within the Aegean volcanic province. The layers that resemble the geochemistry of the Gölcük volcanism accumulated at ~33 218 cal a bp (PLK-19-1; 30 cm), ~32 267 cal a bp (PLK-19-2: 18 cm), ~31 597 cal a bp (PLK-19-3; 8 cm), ~31 300 cal a bp (PLK-19-4; 17 cm) and ~26547 cal a bp (PLK-19-5; 13 cm) and are associated with the last eruptive cycle (Cycle III) of the volcanism. The closest tephra layer to the surface in the sediment core, designated as PLK-19-6 (~1.5 cm), shows geochemical similarities with the Santorini Minoan eruption. However, according to our data, the age of the tephra layer is ~4717  bp/~5542 cal a bp, which is inconsistent with the widely accepted date for the Minoan eruption in the literature. The discrepancy between the geochemical match and chronological inconsistency is discussed in the context of the results presented in the paper.