Investigation of paleotsunami deposits in the cores of Küçükçekmece Lagoon, Sea of Marmara, Turkey
General Assambly of the European Geosciences Union 2008, Austria, 1 - 04 April 2008, vol.10, (Summary Text)
- Publication Type: Conference Paper / Summary Text
- Volume: 10
- Country: Austria
- Istanbul University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
The northern coasts of the Sea of Marmara, Turkey have been hit by numerous coseismic
tsunami waves. The tsunami waves occurred during the earthquake of 15 August
553 affected the coastal area inundating 2 km-wide strip. During 18 October 1343
(Ms=7.0) event, the sea surged up and swept away flat coastal plains. Dry-land inundation
distance across relatively low-lying coastal areas was as much as 2.2 km. On
the other hand, a few minutes before the latest earthquake occurred in the central Sea
of Marmara (10 July1894, Io= XI, Ms=7.3), the sea receded about 50 m throughout
the 50 km-long coastal area between Buyukcekmece to Kartal. Within a few minutes
it came back like a rock throwing away the boats to the land and sweeping off the
quays along the coast between two lagoons of Kucukcekmece and Buyukcekmece.
To understand and determine the tsunami potential and their possible effects to Marmara
and Istanbul coasts, the Kucukcekmece lagoon area was investigated, using the
results of a high-resolution seismic reflection survey and recovering two cores with up
to 4.63 m length, located as far as 166 m from the narrow (300-350 m) strip of sandbar
separating the lagoon from the sea. The stratigraphic sequence is composed mainly by
fine sediments, from clay to silt, with some distinctive thin coarse grained layers. Preliminary
results will be presented combining sedimentological, micropaleontological,
XRF Core Scanner chemical, and Multi Sensor Core Logger (MSCL) analyses.