Physical geography of Elbistan basin

Elbistan Basin is located in the Upper Euphrates Division of Eastern Anatolian Region. Basin, in terms of being at the West end of Eastern Anatolian Region and being located at a place where Central Anatolian Region border on Mediterrarean Region, is an important transition area. The acreage of the basin, mostly restricted to the watershed, is 5156.023 km2, its length from north to south is 65 km and its length from east to West is 92 km. The Elbistan Basin is located at the part where The Central Taurus Mountains goes into division as South-Eastern and East Taurus Mountains. The basin is surrounded by Binboğa Mountains, forming the beginning of the eastern Taurus Mountains from the West; Kepez Mountain from the east; Hezanlı Mountain from the North and by the mountains of Berit and Nurhak which are seen as the pioneer of the South-Eastern Taurus Mountains. Being morphologically a basin, The Elbistan Basin shows also a geological basin characteristic. While Quaternary and Upper Miosen-Pliosen massive units are seen at the centre and the down levels of the basin; outwards in the direction of a young age and surrounding units gradually increased at the same rate raises the Middele Triassic-Cretaceous and Upper Cretaceous formations and Paleozoic units in the outermost seen. The Elbistan Basin, restricted by the faults in the North and South, is geologically a Neogen debris basin. Elbistan Basin, located in the southern-west of Eastern Anatolian Region, while reflecting the climate characteristics of the region in which it takes place, on the other hand, it has a specific climate characteristics of its own because of being border on the Mediterranean and Central Anatolian Region. This climate type is called as a transition type because of having the climate characteristics of these three regions. Ceyhan River and its branches, getting ist source from our country and drenading all the water around, forms the surface waters of the Elbistan Basin. The Ceyhan River, which has no alteration in terms of its regime during whole year, has a stable regime. The Elbistan Basin is quite rich in terms of soil types. The zonal soils forms the soils that have largest spreading area. The brown soils which are in this group, shows large spread in the basin floor and plateau areas. Although largest part of the Elbistan Basin is in the natural forest area, most of the forests have disappeared because of the grazing and the forest destruction. Thus, steppe landscape dominated the general view of the basin. The forest areas, having seen mostly on the hilly parts and rare on the eastern and northern sides of the basin, have the diversity and closeness especially at the southern-west side of the area which is not seen in any part of the Eastern Anatolia. Low to high, the natural steppe at the 1000-1200 m level, from the floor parts of the basin to 2000 m there seen moist in the southern-west, at the rest, dry forest and anthropogenic steppe where these are destructed; and at the higher levels of 2000 m, there seen high mountain meadows. In addition, wrong land usage erosion, block movements, seismicity etc. that are derived from physical geography features, are explained and made some solution advices. KEYWORDS: Kahramanmaras, Elbistan, Afsin, Elbistan Physical Geography, Elbistan Basin, Ceyhan River, transition area, Elbistan Fault.