International research team finds the world's highest late Middle Pleistocene marine deposits

Contributed by Kea Giles, Managing Editor, Geology

Boulder, Colo., USA: Selma Sarı and an international group of colleagues investigate the TOL-1 section in the Mut Basin (southern Türkiye), documenting the world’s highest known late Middle Pleistocene (MIS 7) marine deposits, preserved at 1177 m above mean sea level on the southern margin of the Central Anatolian Plateau.

Using an integrated approach combining calcareous nannofossil and foraminiferal biostratigraphy, paleomagnetism, stable isotopes, and paleobathymetric reconstruction based on ostracod assemblages, the authors constrain the timing of marine deposition and calculate an exceptionally rapid surface uplift rate of about 5.2 meters for every thousand years.

These findings offer a rare high-resolution temporal benchmark linking stratigraphic records of marine deposition to deep-seated geodynamic processes, including slab break-off and mantle flow, that drive rapid surface uplift along active convergent margins.

This publication marks the culmination of early-career research by Selma Sarı at Università degli Studi Roma Tre.

CITATION: Sarı, S., et al., 2026, The world’s highest late Middle-Pleistocene marine deposits on the southern margin of the Central Anatolian Plateau (southern Türkiye): Geology, https://doi.org/10.1130/G55209.1 (open access)

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