Abstract
The Büyük Menderes River is the longest river that discharges into the Aegean Sea, with a length of 615 km. It is one of the main rivers dominating in the geomorphology of western Turkey, with its drainage basin that reaches to 24,000 km2. The river is also very important because of its meandering channel patterns. The term ‘meandering’ in geomorphology, architecture and art originates from the ancient name of this river: Maiandros. Its catchment area mainly consists of three courses located in the main grabens of the region. The upper course of the Büyük Menderes River is located in the Baklan-Dinar Graben, while the middle and lower courses are in the Denizli and Büyük Menderes grabens, respectively. The aim of this study is to describe the meandering channel features of this river in its current course from its source to its mouth, and related landforms and landscapes.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Akgün F, Akyol E (1999) Palynostratigraphy of the coal-bearing Neogene deposits in Büyük Menderes graben, western Anatolia. Geobios 32:367–383
Aksu AE, Piper DJW, Konuk T (1987) Quaternary growth patterns of Büyük Menderes and Küçük Menderes deltas, western Turkey. Sed Geol 52:227–250
Babonneau N, Savoye B, Cremer M, Bez M (2010) Sedimentary architecture in meanders of a submarine channel: detailed study of the present Congo turbidite channel (zaingo project). J Sediment Res 80:852–866
Bozkurt E (2003) Origin of NNE-trending basins in western Turkey. Geodin Acta 6:61–81
Brückner H (1997) Coastal changes in western Turkey; rapid progradation in historical times. Bulletin de l’Institut Océanographique, Monaco 18:63–74 (In: Briand F, Maldonado A (eds) Transformations and evolution of the Mediterranean coastline)
Brückner H, Müllenhoff M, Handl M, van der Borg K (2002) Holocene landscape evolution of the Büyük Menderes alluvial plain in the environs of Myous and Priene (Western Anatolia Turkey). Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie 127(Supplement Band):47–65
EİE (1986) Türkiye akarsularında sediment gözlemleri ve sediment taşınım miktarları. Elektrik İşleri Etüd İdaresi Yayını, no: 86–61
EİE (2006) Türkiye akarsularında asılı yük gözlemleri ve asılı sediment taşınım miktarları. Elektrik İşleri Etüd İdaresi Genel Müdürlüğü, no: 93
Einstein A (1926) Die Ursache der Mäanderbildung der Flußläufe und des sogenannten Baerschen Gesetzes. Die Naturwissenschaften 14(11):223–224
Ergin M, Kadir S, Keskin Ş, Turhan-Akyüz N, Yaşar D (2007) Late Quaternary climate and sea-level changes recorded in sediment composition off the Büyük Menderes River delta (eastern Aegean Sea, Turkey). Quatern Int 167(168):162–176
Erinç S (1978) Changes in the physical environment in Turkey since the end of the last glacial. In: Brice WC (ed) The environmental history of the Near and Middle East since the last ice age. Academic Press, London, pp 45–58
Erol O (1976) Quaternary shoreline changes on the Anatolian coasts of the Aegean Sea and related problems. Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France 2:459–468
Erol O (1996) Photo-geomorhological study of the Büyük Menderes delta. Aegean Geomorhological J, İzmir, Turk 9:1–42
Göney S (1973) Büyük Menderes deltası. İstanbul Üniversitesi Coğrafya Enstitüsü Dergisi 18(19):339–354
Güneralp İ, Marston RA (2012) Process-form linkages in meander morphodynamics: bridging theoretical modeling and real world complexity. Prog Phys Geogr:1–29
Güneralp İ, Rhoads BL (2008) Continuous characterization of the planform geometry and curvature of meandering rivers. Geogr Anal 40(1):1–25
Güneralp İ, Abad JD, Zolezzi G, Hooke J (2012) Advances and challenges in meandering channels research. Geomorphol 163–164:1–9
Gürbüz A, Boyraz S, Ismael MT (2012) Plio-Quaternary development of the Baklan-Dinar graben: implications for cross-graben formation in SW Turkey. Int Geol Rev 54(1):33–50
Gürer ÖF, Bozcu M, Yılmaz K, Yılmaz Y (2001) Neogene basin development around Söke-Kuşadası (Western Anatolia) and its bearing on tectonic development of the Aegean region. Geodin Acta 14:57–69
Gürer ÖF, Sarica-Filoreau N, Özburan M, Sangu E, Doğan B (2009) Progressive development of the Büyük Menderes Graben based on new data, western Turkey. Geol Mag 146:652–673
Hakyemez HY, Erkal T, Göktaş F (1999) Late Quaternary evolution of the Gediz and Büyük Menderes grabens, western Anatolia, Turkey. Quatern Sci Rev 18:549–554
Howard AD (2009) How to make a meandering river. PNAS 106(41):17245–17246
Ikeda S, Parker G (eds) (1989) River meandering. Water resources monograph, 12. American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, 485 p
Jansen P, Van Bendegom L, Van Den Berg J, de Vries M, Zanen A (1979) Principles of river engineering: the non-tidal alluvial river. Pitman, London, 509 p
Kayan İ (1999) Holocene stratigraphy and geomorphological evolution of the Aegean coastal plains of Anatolia. Quatern Sci Rev 18:541–548
Kaymakçı N (2006) Kinematic development and paleostress analysis of the Denizli Basin (Western Turkish): implications of spatial variation of relative paleostress magnitudes and orientations: J Asian Earth Sci 27:207–222
Kazancı N, Dündar S, Alçiçek MC, Gürbüz A (2009) Quaternary deposits of the Büyük Menderes Graben in western Anatolia, Turkey; implications on a river capture and the longest Holocene estuary of the Aegean Sea. Mar Geol 264:165–176
Kazancı N, Gürbüz A, Boyraz S (2011) Büyük Menderes Nehri’nin Jeolojisi ve Evrimi, Batı Anadolu. Türkiye Jeoloji Bülteni 54(1–2):25–55
Knipping M, Müllenhoff M, Brückner H (2008) Human induced landscape changes around Bafa Gölü (western Turkey). Veget Hist Archaeobot 17:365–380
Koçyiğit A (2005) The Denizli graben-horst system and the eastern limit of the western Anatolian continental extension: Basin fill, structure, deformational mode, throw amount and episodic evolutionary history, SW Turkey. Geodinamica Acta 18:167–208
Kondolf GM (2006) River restoration and meanders. Ecol Soc 11(2):42
Langbein WB, Leopold LB (1966) River meanders—theory of minimum variance. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, Technical Report H422
Leopold LB, Wolman MG (1960) River meanders. Geol Soc Am Bull 71:769–794
Marriner N, Morhange C (2007) Geoscience of Mediterranean harbours. Earth Sci Rev 80:137–194
Meakin P, Sun T, Jossang T, Schwarz K (1996) A simulation model for meandering rivers and their associated environments. Phys A 233:606–618
Müllenhoff M, Handl M, Knipping M, Brückner H (2004) The evolution of Lake Bafa (Western Turkey)—sedimentological, microfaunal and palynological results. Coastline Rep 1:55–66 (In: Schernewski G, Dolch T (eds) Geographie der Meere und Küsten)
Ocakoğlu F, Açıkalın S, Özsayın E, Dirik RK (2014) Tectonosedimentary evolution of the Karacasu and Bozdoğan basins in the Central Menderes Massif, W Anatolia. Turk J Earth Sci 23:361–385
Özgür R (1982–83) Aydın-Germencik-Ortaklar dolayında genç tektoniğe bağlı jeomorfolojik gelişme. MTA Dergisi 99–100:142–147
Purvis M, Robertson AHF (2005) Miocene sedimentary evolution of the NE-SW-trending Selendi and Gördes Basins, western Turkey: implications for extensional processes. Sediment Geol 174:31–62
Rojay B, Toprak V, Demirci C, Süzen ML (2005) Plio-Quaternary evolution of the Küçük Menderes graben (western Anatolia, Turkey). Geodin Acta 18:241–255
Saraç G (2003) Türkiye omurgalı fosil yatakları. Maden Tetkik ve Arama Genel Müdürlüğü (MTA) Raporu, No: 10609, 208 p, Ankara, Turkey
Sarıca N (2000) The Plio-Pleistocene age of Büyük Menderes and Gediz grabens and their tectonic significance on N-S extensional tectonics in west Anatolia: mammalian evidence from the continental deposits. Geol J 35:1–24
Schröder B, Bay B (1996) Late Holocene rapid coastal change in western Anatolia-Büyük Menderes plain as a case study. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie, N.F. 102:61–70
Şen Ş, Seyitoğlu G (2009) Magnetostratigraphy of early-middle Miocene deposits from EW trending Alaşehir and Büyük Menderes grabens in western Turkey, and its tectonic implications. In: van Hinsbergen DJJ, Edwards MA, Govers R (eds) Geodynamics of collision and collapse at the Africa–Arabia–Eurasia subduction zone, vol 311. Geological Society of London, Special Publications, pp 321–342
Şengör AMC (1987) Cross-faults and differential stretching of hanging-walls in regions of low-angle normal faulting: example from Western Turkey. In: Coward MP, Dewey JF, Hancock PL (eds) Continental extensional tectonics, vol 28. Geological Society of London, London, Special Publications, pp 575–589
Seyitoğlu G, Scott BC (1992) The age of the Büyük Menderes graben (west Turkey) and its tectonic implications. Geol Mag 129:239–242
Sözbilir H, Emre T (1990) Neogene stratigraphy and structure of the northern rim of the Büyük Menderes graben. In: International earth sciences congress on Aegean regions (IESCA–1990), proceedings, İzmir, Turkey, pp 314–322
Sümer Ö, İnci U, Sözbilir H (2013) Tectonic evolution of the Söke Basin: extension dominated transtensional basin formation in western part of the Büyük Menderes Graben, Western Anatolia. Turkey J Geodynamics 65:148–175
Swanson DC (1993) The importance of fluvial processes and related reservoir deposits. J Pet Technol:368–377
ten Veen JH, Boulton SJ, Alçiçek MC (2009) From palaeotectonics to neotectonics in the Neotethys realm: the importance of kinematic decoupling and inherited structural grain in SW Anatolia (Turkey). Tectonophys 473:261–281
Twidale CR (2004) River patterns and their meaning. Earth Sci Rev 67:159–218
Ünay E, Göktaş F, Hakyemez M, Şan Ö (1995) Dating the sediments exposed at the northern part of the Büyük Menderes graben (Turkey) on the basis of Arvicolidae (Rodentia, Mammalia). Geol Bull Turk 38:63–68
Weihaupt JG (1974) Possible origin and probable discharges of meandering channels on the planet Mars. J Geophys Res 79(14):2073–2076
Xu D, Bai YC, Ma JM, Tan Y (2011) Numerical investigation of longterm planform dynamics and stability of river meandering on fluvial floodplains. Geomorphol 132:195–207
Yılmaz Y, Genç SC, Gürer F, Bozcu M, Yılmaz K, Karacık Z, Altunkaynak S, Elmas A (2000) When did the western Anatolian grabens begin to develop? J Geol Soc Lond 173:353–384
Yönlü Ö, Altunel E, Karabacak V, Akyüz S, Yalçıner Ç (2010) Offset archaeological relics in the western part of the Büyük Menderes graben (western Turkey) and their tectonic implications. GSA Spec Pap 471:269–279
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to editors Attila Çiner, Catherine Kuzucuoğlu and series editor Piotr Migoń for their valuable comments that improved the quality of the manuscript significantly, and to Kevin McClain for revising the English of the text.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gürbüz, A., Kazancı, N. (2019). The Büyük Menderes River: Origin of Meandering Phenomenon. In: Kuzucuoğlu, C., Çiner, A., Kazancı, N. (eds) Landscapes and Landforms of Turkey. World Geomorphological Landscapes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03515-0_29
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03515-0_29
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-03513-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-03515-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)