**2. Samples and methods**

An 11.9-m-long borehole (BS) was drilled on a swamp area, near the northwestern boundary of Lake Bafa, during a field survey in December 2012 (**Figure 1**). Subsequently, cores BAF-3B (0.5 m) and BAF37 (4.1 m) were retrieved from the central and eastern parts of the lake, using hammer and Kajak coring methods, respectively. The borehole section and sediment cores were lithologically described, systematically subsampled, and dried by using the freeze-drying method. Prepared mixtures of the selected 34 subsamples were analyzed as LiBO2/Li2B4O7 flux by ICP-MS in ACME laboratories, Canada. AMS 14C age determinations of selected *Cerastoderma glaucum* shells (**Table 1**) were analyzed in Beta Analytical Laboratories [8, 9, 13]. Calibration of the samples was calculated in Beta Analytical Laboratories, using one of the databases associated with the 2013 INTCAL program, using the reservoir age correction of 400 years [14, 15]. However, we realize that the reservoir age for samples representing the isolated stage of Lake Bafa (e.g., sample BAF 37/2, 72–73) may be different and that this deserves further investigation. Therefore, we submitted here the carbon dating data either in measured values and calibrated data (**Table 1**). Total organic carbon (TOC) analysis and Rock Eval

*"Geo-archives of a Coastal Lacustrine Eco-system": Lake Bafa (Mediterranean Sea) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85589*


**Table 1.**

As a Middle to Late Holocene age coastal lacustrine basin formed in this specific geological area, Lake Bafa shows a complicated paleoenvironmental and paleoecological history [6, 7] (**Figure 1**). The lake evolved by the progradation of the Büyük

Latmian Gulf during the late glacial-Holocene transgression [6]. It was subjected to ecological changes from a coastal marine inlet to a lagoon and finally to a completely isolated lake [6, 8, 9]. From this point of view, Lake Bafa provides an important sedimentary archive of these ecosystem changes and associated physical–chemical shifts, which are the main objectives of this study. To achieve these objectives, we carried out lithological descriptions and sedimentological and geochemical analyses of various sediment cores from the lake. The use of specific element concentrations and their ratios and organic geochemical analyses allowed us to reconstruct the past organic matter productivity-preservation rates, the water column chemistry, and

An 11.9-m-long borehole (BS) was drilled on a swamp area, near the northwest-

ern boundary of Lake Bafa, during a field survey in December 2012 (**Figure 1**). Subsequently, cores BAF-3B (0.5 m) and BAF37 (4.1 m) were retrieved from the central and eastern parts of the lake, using hammer and Kajak coring methods, respectively. The borehole section and sediment cores were lithologically described, systematically subsampled, and dried by using the freeze-drying method. Prepared mixtures of the selected 34 subsamples were analyzed as LiBO2/Li2B4O7 flux by ICP-MS in ACME laboratories, Canada. AMS 14C age determinations of selected *Cerastoderma glaucum* shells (**Table 1**) were analyzed in Beta Analytical Laboratories [8, 9, 13]. Calibration of the samples was calculated in Beta Analytical Laboratories, using one of the databases associated with the 2013 INTCAL program, using the reservoir age correction of 400 years [14, 15]. However, we realize that the reservoir age for samples representing the isolated stage of Lake Bafa (e.g., sample BAF 37/2, 72–73) may be different and that this deserves further investigation. Therefore, we submitted here the carbon dating data either in measured values and calibrated data (**Table 1**). Total organic carbon (TOC) analysis and Rock Eval

Menderes River (Maiandros, Maeander) delta and the closure of the former

*Lake Bafa bathymetric map showing the piston core and drill core locations.*

*Sedimentary Processes - Examples from Asia,Turkey and Nigeria*

the clastic material supply signals [10–12].

**2. Samples and methods**

**30**

**Figure 1.**

*AMS radiocarbon ages, calibrated ages, and description of the related sediment samples.*

Pyrolysis VI measurements are performed in Turkish Petroleum Cooperation Laboratories.
