Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Mediterranean Geoscience Reviews https://doi.org/10.1007/s42990-019-00017-1 ORIGINAL PAPER Geomorphology and tephrochronology review of the Hasandağ volcano (southern Cappadocia, Turkey) C. Kuzucuoğlu 1  · E. Gündoğdu Atakay 2  · D. Mouralis 3  · G. Atıcı 2  · H. Guillou 4  · A. Türkecan 2  · J.‑F. Pastre 1 Received: 11 November 2019 / Revised: 14 December 2019 / Accepted: 14 December 2019 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 Abstract This research proposes a suite of volcanic events that took part in the edifcation of the double-peaked Hasandağ stratovolcano in southern Cappadocia. Inter-correlations of sections dispatched along geographic transects across the volcano evidence continuities/discontinuities and stratigraphic relationships using key layers identifed through this process which is, later, framed by a radiometric dating control of some of these formations. The main goal is to provide some chronological mark- ers of the geomorphological evolution of the volcano. The stratigraphy, lithology and facies, the landform defnitions and new dates provide information about eruption types and their role in shaping the morphologies of the volcano through time. Recent ages from literature and seven new K/Ar dates contribute in enriching the story of the volcanic activity that built the Hasandağ stratovolcano landforms. The part of the story exposed in this article starts mainly c. 700/650 ka ago with the construction of a Mid-Pleistocene volcano. Later, between 220 and 120 ka ago, main events occurred in the NE part of the volcano. After an initial Plinian eruption, a caldera collapse is recorded by pumice fows. Close to the emission point, a small collapse structure is today flled with a much younger dacite fow. After the Plinian eruption, the partial destruction of a volcano caused one or two avalanches containing several meters-thick distinct blocks that few north c. 16–18 km over the roof of the Cappadocian Miocene ignimbrites. Remains of the destructed volcano fanks are not visible. Either they are buried below younger lava fows forming the Küçük Hasandağ cone, or a seism in the Tuz Gölü Fault Zone during the avalanche may have resulted in an explosion. This event was followed by extrusion of rhyolitic domes positioned on the caldera rim, emitting pumice falls now flling-in the Güvercin valley stream down to Ihlara village. During Late Pleistocene emission of andesite and dacite fows and domes, accompanied by several pyroclastic fows formed today’s terminal cones of the stratovolcano. Keywords Hasandağ volcano · Geomorphology · Pyroclastic deposits · K/Ar dating · Holocene · Mapping · Cappadocia · Turkey Introduction The double-peaked Hasandağ stratovolcano in southern Cap- padocia (Central Anatolia: Fig. 1) reaches 3253 m a.s.l. (above sea level) (Büyük Hasandağ: BHD) and 3069 m a.s.l. (Küçük Hasandağ: KHD). Its international fame is partly founded on a painting on an adobe house wall in the Neolithic site of Çatal- höyük in the Konya plain, 120 km SW of the Hasandağ, attrib- uted to this volcano. This hypothesis was proposed by Mellaart (1967), with a date corresponding to the building of the house, i.e. 6600–6400 BCE (8.6–8.4 ka ago). The strong suspicion for such a recent occurrence of explosive eruption in the Hasandağ is now supported by an 8.97 ± 0.64 ka date (U/Th–He ages from zircon grains) obtained from a pumice fall identifed at the rim of the BHD crater (Schmitt et al. 2014). Since the 1990’s, it has been subject to several and increasingly detailed Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s42990-019-00017-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * C. Kuzucuoğlu catherine.kuzucuoglu@lgp.cnrs.fr 1 Laboratoire de Géographie Physique, Environnements Quaternaires et Actuels (CNRS, Univ. Paris 1), 1 place Aristide Briand, 92195 Meudon, France 2 Department of Geology, General Directorate of MTA, Dumlupınar Bulvarı No 139, 06800 Ankara, Turkey 3 Université de Rouen-Normandie and CNRS, Laboratoire IDEES (UMR 6266), 7 Rue Thomas Becket, 76821 Mont-Saint-Aignan Cedex, France 4 Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif sur Yvette, France