Late Quaternary Paleoclimates of Turkey From Glacial Records and Their Link to the Climate Change of the Past Century

Glaciers are not among the first things usually associated with Turkey. But glaciers do exist in several high mountains of Turkey, and glacial-geological evidence show that much bigger glaciers existed in Turkish mountains in the past, providing information on paleoclimate. Mount Ağri (5137 m) (also known as Mt.Ararat), in the Eastern Anatolia, has a large ice cap with several outlet glaciers. Mount Cilo (4135 m), in the Southeastern Turkey, has active glaciers up to 1.5 km long. Kaçkar Mountains (3932 m), on the Black Sea coast, have about 1 km long glacier. Mount Erciyes (3917 m) is the westernmost mountain that has a glacier today. Recent cosmogenic 10Be and 36Cl dating of glacial deposits and modeling of glacier flow on the mountains of Turkey reveal Late Quaternary paleoclimate of the region. Late Glacial Maximum glaciers were the most extensive ones in the last 22 ka (thousands years) and they developed in cold (6- 11.5°C colder than today) and wet (up to 2 times) climates. Late Glacial (14.1 ± 1.3 ka ago) climate was colder by 5 to 8°C based on 50% wetter and 25% drier conditions, respectively. Early Holocene moraines (range from 10.2 ± 0.2 ka to 8.6 ± 0.3 ka ago) in the central Turkey show that glaciers were extraordinarily large and climate was up to twice as wet as today. Glaciers present in Turkish mountains today may be remnants from the last advance (possibly the Little Ice Age) and their length change since the beginning of the century reveals a constant retreat under a warming rate of 0.9-1.2°C per century, consistent with the global warming trend.