The Purpose and Age of Underwater Walls in the Bay of Elaia of Western Turkey: A Multidisciplinary Approach
Pergamum (modern: Bergama) was operating an important harbour used by military forces and merchants at the city of Elaia during Hellenistic and Roman Imperial times. Harbour-related facilities such as warehouses, breakwaters and wharfs document the importance of this harbour site not only for the Pergamenians. This paper focuses on the purpose and age of six submerged wall structures situated approximately 1 km south of the ancient closed harbour basin of Elaia. Geoelectric cross-sections and semi-aquatic coring near these walls failed to detect any solid basement under the walls which excludes their possible use as breakwaters or wharfs. Instead, the walls were most likely delineating and …
Sediment Transport and Hydrodynamic Parameters of Tsunami Waves Recorded in Onshore Geoarchives
In regions with a short historical tsunami record, the assessment of long-term tsunami risk strongly depends on geological evidence of prehistoric events. Whereas dating tsunami deposits is already well established, magnitude assessment based on remaining sedimentary structures is still a major challenge. In this study, two approaches were applied to deduce transport processes and hydrodynamic parameters of tsunami events from onshore deposits found in the coastal plain of Ban Bang Sak, SW Thailand: (1) The maximum offshore sediment source was determined using granulometry, geochemistry, mineralogy and foraminifera of the tsunamites, and reference samples from various marine and terrestrial…