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Sedimentology and geochemistry of the Kavakköy Travertine (Konya, central Turkey)

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Abstract

In the Kavakköy region located at Southwest of Konya (central Turkey), four Quaternary travertine mounds and two recent travertine deposition sites are roughly aligned along the Seydişehir Fault Zone. Water temperature of recent travertine sites is about 39 and 19 °C. Six different facies were determined from the Kavakköy Travertine: crystalline crust travertine, paper-thin raft travertine, coated bubble travertine, pisoid, lithoclast travertine and shrub travertine facies. Sedimentological, morphologic and geochemical characteristics of these facies point toward depositions in slope and depressional depositional systems. Rare element content and isotopic values of different facies are distributed on diagrams as two separate clusters. After comparing with two recent travertines, it is hypothesized that they are most probably related to the temperatures of travertine formation water. High δ13C contents and calculated δ13C values, using Panichi and Tongiorgi’s (in: Proceedings of the 2nd UN symposium on the development and use of geothermal resources, San Francisco, CA, 20–29 May 1975, pp. 815–825, 1976) equation, imply that parent water was charged with CO2 from a deep origin. Significant differences in the δ13C and δ18O isotopic values of recent travertines at two different sites have been interpreted as being related to water circulation path and source of CO2. The travertine precipitated by water with a temperature of 19 °C has comparatively short and shallow fluid flow paths and low (normal) heat flow and has CO2 isotopic signatures, indicating a comparatively large quantity of CO2 contribution from decarbonation of limestone. In contrast, the travertine formed by relatively hot water (39 °C) had been conductively heated during percolating through thick Paleozoic–Cenozoic sequence and has incorporated a comparatively large quantity of CO2 derived from mantle sources.

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Fig. 1

Modified after Özgül (1997)

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Adapted from Özkul et al. (2002)

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Modified after Minissale et al. (2002)

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Selcuk University Research Fund for the financial support (Project No. 12101018). Special thanks go to Prof. Dr. Ada Haynes from Tennessee Tech. University, USA for her contribution in improving the language of this manuscript. The critical comments on an earlier version of this manuscript by anonymous reviewers are greatly appreciated. This article is produced from Master Thesis of Seda Karaisaoğlu supervised by Hükmü Orhan.

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  1. Department of Geological Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Selçuk University, Selçuklu, Konya, Turkey

    Seda Karaisaoğlu & Hükmü Orhan

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  1. Seda Karaisaoğlu
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  2. Hükmü Orhan
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Correspondence to Seda Karaisaoğlu.

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Karaisaoğlu, S., Orhan, H. Sedimentology and geochemistry of the Kavakköy Travertine (Konya, central Turkey). Carbonates Evaporites 33, 783–800 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13146-018-0436-z

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