The Anatolian Mountains: glacial landforms from the Younger Dryas stadial

Abstract

The cold and dry climatic conditions during the Younger Dryas caused the advance of the Anatolian glaciers. Frontal positions of the glaciers were generally located in the upper parts of the valleys or in the cirques. Usually, glaciers were a few km long and did not reach the frontal positions during the main glaciation. However, glaciers longer than LGM size were reported in the Taurus Mountains. Rough estimations of palaeo-ELA depression with respect to the modern values are a few hundred metres in the Eastern Black Sea Mountains, c. 700 m in Northwestern Anatolia and >1000 m in the Taurus Mountains. The configuration of the Younger Dryas glaciations in northern Anatolia is in accordance with the existing climate proxies from the caves and lakes, whereas the published data from the Taurus Mountains imply a contradiction to the dry and cold climatic conditions. At present, our knowledge on the Younger Dryas glaciations is incomplete, the details of the climatic conditions that prevailed in Anatolia and caused the expansion of the glaciers still remain elusive.