Taurus Mountains near Goynuk Turkey
When
Where
Available in person in Harshbarger 110 or via zoom (see email link)
Abstract
Dinaric Alps with jagged peaks above valleys with dense forests
Quantifying denudation rates under different climatic and tectonic conditions is fundamental to understanding landscape evolution. Due to their high solubility, carbonate rocks often respond differently to climatic and tectonic forces than other rock types. In this seminar, I will present long-term denudation rates and their controlling factors for carbonates in the Mediterranean coastal mountains at two regions: the Taurus Mountains of Türkiye and the Dinaric Alps of Slovenia. Denudation refers to the chemical and physical erosive processes that collectively lower the Earth’s surface. Denudation rates measured with in-situ cosmogenic 36Cl in 34 rock samples from different locations range from 0.2 to 10 cm per thousand years. Denudation patterns show a decreasing trend from the temperate coastal zones to the drier interior plateau. In between, at high elevations where mean annual surface temperatures are low, denudation rates are strongly correlated with precipitation. These rates are lower than the theoretical maximum dissolution rates predicted under zero evaporation, suggesting that climate is the dominant control on carbonate denudation. Our results indicate that chemical weathering is the dominant denudation process at the high-elevation sites, whereas physical erosion dominates at the coastal and inland sites. In addition, significant infiltration of surface runoff results in strong subsurface karstification at the expense of surface drainage. This process has created an imbalance between uplift and denudation that has preserved the high-elevation topography of the Mediterranean coastal mountains.
Bio
M. Akif Sarıkaya is Professor of Quaternary Geology at the Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences, Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Türkiye. He received his Ph.D. in 2009 from the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Arizona. His primary research interests include Quaternary geomorphology and cosmogenic isotope geochronology, with applications in diverse environments such as glacial, fluvial, volcanic, and tectonic settings. Dr. Sarıkaya is the founder and director of Türkiye’s first and only cosmogenic isotope laboratory, ITU/Kozmo-Lab, located in Istanbul. He is currently a visiting professor in the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona.