Finding the world's highest late Middle Pleistocene marine deposits
Selma Sarı and an international group of colleagues investigated the TOL-1 section in the Mut Basin (southern Türkiye), while documenting the world's highest known Late Middle Pleistocene (MIS 7) marine deposits, preserved at 1,177 m (3,860 feet) above mean sea level on the southern margin of the Central Anatolian Plateau.
Selma Sarı, alongside a team of international researchers, has discovered the highest known marine deposits from the Late Middle Pleistocene epoch, located at 1,177 meters above mean sea level in the Mut Basin of southern Türkiye. The team utilized an integrated method combining various scientific techniques, including calcareous nannofossil and foraminiferal biostratigraphy, paleomagnetism, stable isotopes, and paleobathymetric reconstruction using ostracod assemblages.
This research allowed them to accurately date the marine deposits to approximately 127,000 years ago during Marine Isotope Stage 7.
Their findings revealed a staggering uplift rate of around 5.2 meters per thousand years, demonstrating an exceptionally rapid surface uplift rate. This discovery provides a unique high-resolution temporal benchmark, linking stratigraphic records of marine deposition to deep-seated geodynamic processes such as slab break-off and mantle flow, which drive rapid surface uplift along active convergent margins.
The study, published in the journal Geology, represents the culmination of Sarı's early-career research at Università degli Studi Roma Tre.
Written by urgent.news from Phys.org's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
