Plio-Pleistocene Marine and Terrestrial Paleoenvironments of Datça Peninsula: Preliminary Observations

The Datça Basin, characterized by the Datça Fault in the north, developed at early Pliocene as a half-graben, then became a graben in the late Pleistocene. Plio-Pleistocene units have been deposited unconformably on the Mesozoic carbonates and ophiolites. We conducted paleontological studies on the sediments of both terrestrial and marine environments to shed some light the marine-continental transitions in the Plio-Pleistocene deposits of Datça Basin. Three composite sections were sampled in the Yıldırımlı Formation. We considered the planktonic and benthic foraminiferal ratio (P/B ratio) for deriving paleobathymetry estimations, but the very shallow water depths prevented calculation. Fluvial dominated mixed environments may have been responsible for this absence of foraminifera. We also studied the mollusk fauna which indicates a shallow marine environment. In this case, ostracods, found in the washed samples, are getting more importance for further studies