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

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

FOLIA HISTORICO NATURALIA MUSEI MATRAENSIS 1994 19: 7-21 Review Of Karst Research In Western Taurus (Turkey) JÁNOS HÍR - ONUR ÖZBEK Abstract: Turkey is widely comprised by carbonate rocks, their ages spanning from Paleozoic to Cenosoic. The karstification may cover one third of the country ranging from Aegean Coast to the inadequately studied South East Anatolia. Although there exists a number of studies dealing with karst geology, hydrogeology and geomorphology of the region, we still lack a complete inventory of the subject. A brief sketch about karstic features of Western Taurus based on recent speleological and hydrogeological surveys are presented. INTRODUCTION The earliest studies on geology of Turkey were conducted in 1838 (ILHAN, 1971). During 1869- 1879 period, the first article on the speleology of Yarimburgaz Cave (Istanbul) was written by ABDULLAH BEY (1869),(TLHAN 1976, ALAGÖZ 1944). In an article between the years 1900 and 1901, we know that BOSQUET (1901) wrote about the environs of the town Kiiçùkçekmepe and the stream Sazlidere with its chapel ruins inside the Yarimburgaz Cave. The Italian archaeologist MORETTI (1926 a, b) gave a cursory description of Kocáin and Karain Caves in Antalya in 1919. After this date, dealing with Yarimburgaz Cave again, KOCACAN (1921) prepared a report a named "How to survey a cave". Later, ALAGÖZ (1944) compiled his studies. Likewise, geologist AYGEN (1956, 1959, 1965, 1966, 1984) made several significant contributions to karst of Turkey and later studies were concentrated mainly on geomorphology and geographical features. The first compilation on speleology was produced by CHOPPY (1978) a French speleologist who had explored many caves in Turkey. This was the beginning of an inventory of the Turkish caves. A preliminary study of 600 caves was finished by ÖZBEK(1992). A complete list of Turkish caves in a computerized inventory work including 850 entries were compiled from the literature (ÖZBEK, 1993). As to this information now we can deduce some important facts about karstic formations in Turkey. Some researchers in Turkes belive that one fifth of the country is covered by carbonate rocks (AYGEN, 1984). Some imply that this ratio must be one third (EROSKAY and GÜNAY, 1979). We will accept the later view in this article as the recent researchers show it is obvious that all over the country, an intensive karstification can be observed. WEST TAURUS KARST Taurus Mountains are usually divided into 3 sectors: Western, Middle and Eastern Taurus Mountains (Fig. 1.). Of all these regions, Western Taurus had been studied most. The first reason for this might have been the proximity of the region to the research centers and big cities and the ease in reaching here by the scientists. The second reason could possibly be due to easily recognized features of the karstic formations and the related water resources potential in this region which may have attracted the attention of many scientists. The Mediterranean region is the most important karst region of the country where karst features are well developed and widely distributed (§ENGOR, 1986). Taurus Belt begins at the Aegean Coast as an eastward continuation of the Dinaro-Hellenic arc in the Alpine System and continues through the Mediterranean Coast forming the Tauric Arc around Isparta region, and later crosses to Iran over Southeast Anatolia. In this belt limestone hills as high as 2 500 7