Late Miocene to Plio-Pleistocene fluvio-lacustrine system in the Karacasu Basin (SW Anatolia, Turkey): Depositional, paleogeographic and paleoclimatic implications

In the early Quaternary, the basin was dissected by the re-activation of basin bounding faults. The unconformable base of the overlying Quaternary deposits (Karacasu Formation; FA3) reflected the basin's transformation from a half-graben into a full-graben system. Oxygen isotope data from carbonates show an alternation of humid climatic periods, when freshwater settings predominated, and semiarid/arid periods in which the basin hosted alkaline and saline water lakes. Neotectonic activity has rejuvenated many of the basin-bounding faults, causing development of talus aprons and local alluvial fans. The basin was progressively incised by modern rivers that have largely smoothed out the topographic relief of the graben margins.