Folia Historico-Naturalia Musei Matraensis - A Mátra Múzeum Természetrajzi Közleményei 19. (1994)

János Hír–Onur Özbek: Review Of Karst Research In Western Taurus (Turkey)

Karstic springs Fig. 2. Water outputs of the important karst springs in the Taurus Mountains. A Toros-hegység legfontosabb karsztforrásai és vízhozamuk. nage area. The karstification around the Egirdir Lake is relatively less developed when compared to other parts of the Taurus Range. The maximum depth of the lake is 16.5 meters where in the Middle Miocene two conjugate faults: Kirkavak and Southwest Anatolian Faults, have formed this depression basin (KARAMAN, 1989). The level of the lake is regulated by an artificial outlet structure which is the starting point of a channel flowing to the Kovada Lake. According to WALDRON (1984), the base of Kovada dolomite is generally tectonic in origin. Where approximate thickness of the Kovada dolomite reaches up to 200 meters, some researchers have pointed out different limestone layers like Permian aged ones in this region. As Upper Jurassic fossiles are found at the base of this dolomitic structure, the researcher implied its age as Jura or pre Jura. KARAMAN (1989) implies that the morphogenesis of this basin is related with the Miocene aged Kovada and Kasikara faults. Kovada Lake (880 meters in altitude) is situated on massive limestones loosing some of its waters through sinkholes. It is belived that Olukköprü springs are fed by Kovada Lake. The environment of the lake is a national park defending the original Mediterranean vegetation. In the Southern part of the region there are three famous spring-groups:the Pinarbasi-Kirkgozler springs, the Olukköprü Spring and the Dumanli spring (fig. 2.). The Pinarbasi-Kirkgöz group is is along an approximately Eas-West oriented fault zone by the old Antalya-Burdur road. These are the primary springs of the Antalya travertine area (AYGEN, 1966, 1969) and it would seem reasonable to presume these springs to have created the travertine plateau (YEVJEVICH, 1979). All other springs of the travertine are secondary springs and although it is not proven, there are some views that these fed by Kirkgöz group. From the high productive spring (15 m / sec), the water flows in to two different paths: 1. Kirkgöz springs - Biyikli Sinkhole - Varsák dofine -Diidenba^i underground river - Diidenbasi Spring. 2. Kirkgöz springs - Ya^ca Sinkhole - coastal springs. New diving attempts have been made by some Yugoslavian and Turkish divers to Kirkgözler springs in the previous years intending to find out the size and flow characteristics of this huge system. These divers revealed the long suspected size of the system and the divers had to abandon their exploration due to lack of the necessary equipment and unexpected depth. 10