The Volcanic Stratigraphy of Cappadocia, Central Anatolia

The landscape of Cappadocia, Central Anatolia, is characterized by scenic erosional structures in nine rhyolitic to dacitic ignimbrite compound cooling units, forming the Neogene Volcanic Plateau of Nevsehir, for which a late Miocene to lower Pliocene, mainly Turolian age is indicated by fossil vertebrates [1] as well as K/Ar ages of 11 to 3 Ma [2]. The ignimbrites are spread over some 1.000 km and volumes of several 10 to some 100 km are calculated for each. They were first mapped in the 1960s by Pasquare [3] who also first described and named most of these volcaniclastic units as well as basaltic to dacitic lavas, epiclastic sediments and paleosols they are interlayered with. Extensive geophysical surveys resolved two large negative anomalies that were interpreted as source areas of the caldera-forming ultraplinian eruptions [4]. However, some interpretations are in conflict with stratigraphically deduced locations [5].