Modeling of shallow structures in the Cappadocia region using gravity and aeromagnetic anomalies

• Shallow structure of Cappadocia was studied using grav-magnetic data.
• Deep structure was determined about 2 km in gravity and magnetic power spectrum.
• 3D-2D models of study area were constructed to obtain the bottom of shallow bodies.
• There is a circular depression (70 × 50 km2) with 1–2.7 km depth range, 2 km in average.
• It may hardly be claimed that there is a super-caldera system in Cappadocia.

In this study, shallow structures and bodies creating gravity and magnetic anomalies in the Cappadocia Volcanic Complex region in central Anatolia were investigated in order to determine the tectonic origin and structural setting of young volcanic units. The shallow geological structures in the region are depressions filled with mainly low-density, loose volcano-clastics and ignimbrite sheets associated with the continental Neogene deposits. These units together with other volcanic products are originated from the large Neogene and Quaternary volcanoes of the central Anatolia, particularly in the Cappadocia region. At first, spectral analysis to obtain the cut-off frequencies for the high-pass filter was performed in this investigation. Then, gravity and magnetic data were high-pass filtered to remove the deep and regional effects on anomalies and to unveil only shallow structures’ effects. Subsequently, upward and downward continuations were carried out to determine how these shallow structures influence the total anomalies and their contribution in the confining total potential field. In addition, three and two dimensional gravity models (3D and 2D) of the study area were also constructed to obtain the bottom depth of shallow bodies.According to spectral analysis results, shallow structures could be separated into two groups from the power spectrums and bottom depth of deeper structure was commonly determined about 2 km in gravity and magnetic spectrum, both. More shallow structure is at the depth around 0.317 km according to the gravity power spectrum. Obviously, 3D and 2D models are consistent with the spectral analysis results for the deeper unit depth. A circular, large depression (70 × 50 km2) surrounds Mount Melendiz with a 1–2.7 km depth range (2 km in average). Because the depressions around the central volcanoes of Mount Melendiz and Mount Hasan cover very large areas in the basin scale, the shallow and low-density volcanic units can hardly be claimed that they are the products of a large caldera system in contrast to the expectations. However, this idea, in any case, is still worth to pondering over and should be investigated with further volcanological methods.