Late Quaternary sedimentation and tectonics in the submarine Şarköy Canyon, western Marmara Sea (Turkey)

Abstract

Influences of tectonics and late Quaternary sea-level changes on sedimentation in the submarine Şarköy Canyon, western Marmara Sea (Turkey) were investigated using a total of 37 seismic reflection profiles and 12 gravity sediment cores (with 63–435 cm thicknesses), which were collected at water depths ranging from 62 to 245 m. 14 C ages of base sections in three cores (11.585, 11.845 and 24.915 ka bp ) and upward fining of grain size in the cores suggest that these sediments must have been deposited since the sea-level lowstand at about 12 ka bp, when the conditions in the Marmara Sea began to change from lacustrine to the present marine phase. With some exceptions, siliciclastic mud (silt+clay >90%) with low carbonate contents (