Hazar Lake (Elazig) Pleistocene-Holocene climate and water level changes in high definition

SUMMARY Hazar Lake (Elazig) Pleistocene-Holocene Climate and Water Level Changes in High Definition The Hazar Lake, which is situated 22 km far from the southeast of Elazığ city. Recently, it has a elevation of 1248 m, and is a a 25 km-long and 7 km-wide. The Hazar Lake is a pull-apart basin located along the strike-slip left lateral East Anatolian Fault System (DAFS). The Hazar Lake Basin represent a continental cold climate. The average annual temperature is around 12,9 °C and and precipitation of 551,7 mm. This study has been established within TÜBİTAK Project of 111Y045 number that began to execute in the Geology Department since 2011. This study aims exploring climate and lake level changes in Lake Hazar and its around during Pleistocene to Holocene by using sedimentologic, geochemical and paleontologic analysis on the core sediments retrieved from the lake. As a result of TOC, magnetic susceptibility, radiocarbon and polen analysis done on the cores for this purpose, their pysical and geochemical properties were documented in this study. The chronostratigraphic units have been well established in detail in the cores, which were deposited during the late Pleistocene to Holocene stages (the last 15 ka) on the basis of 14C ages obtained from the cores. As a result of core and seismic studies together with pysical and geochemical analysis of the sediments, it can be concurred that the lake level was well below -100 m during 15 ka BP. The latter on, it increased above -55 m during 13 ka BP, and then it fall down again below -73 m that all can be estimated on the basis of paleoshorelines observed in the seismic profiles at that depth. Because more humid climate was maintained in the lake at the beginning of the Holocene, the lake level began tor ise above -50 m. In the midd-Holocene, between 8-6 ka BP, the existence of dry climate has been documented on the basis of polen analysis on the core sediments. After the mid-Holocene, the lake level rise continued and it reached the present level after 1.5 ka BP. Key Words: Lake Hazar, Pleistocene-Holocene, core, seismic.