Stratigraphy of the sediment infill in Bosphorus Strait: water exchange between the Black and Mediterranean Seas during the last glacial Holocene

Abstract

The sediment infill over the Paleozoic bedrock in the Bosphorus Strait consists of four sedimentary units which were deposited in the last 26,000 (14)C years B.P. The stratigraphy of these units suggests that this Dart of the Bosphorus was a freshwater lake between 26,000 and 5,300 (14)C years B.P., depositing sands with a freshwater mollusc fauna of Black Sea neo-euxinian affinity (Dreissena rostriformis, Dreissena polymorpha, and Monodaena pontica). The first appearance of euryhaline Mediterranean molluscs (e.g., Ostrea edulis, Mytilus edulis) was observed at 5,300 (14)C years B.P. in this part of the Bosphorus. Deposition of coarse Mytilus-bank and Ostrea-bank units suggests that the establishment of the present dual-flow regime in the Bosphorus took place at about 4,400 (14)C years B.P.