Introduction to Landscapes and Landforms of Turkey

Abstract

This chapter (Introduction) presents the content and organization of the information provided by the book “Landforms and landscapes of Turkey”. The book is divided in two groups of chapters. The first group assembles three chapters which have in common to present thematic data concerning the main types of processes that have been at work in shaping today’s landforms and landscapes of Turkey, and that have given each of the geomorphological regions of Turkey its specificity. Going back to Miocene is necessary for Turkey as the two main processes that led to today’s landscapes have been active since the late Miocene: tectonism and climate. Late Miocene period acted as a turning point both in terms of tectonism, with the start of the “neotectonic period”, and in terms of climate which changed diversely during Pliocene and Pleistocene, with processes affecting diversely the tectonically deformed reliefs, as well as the erosion and preservation of landforms in the country. Three chapters expose this history with: its impacts on today’s physical geography of Turkey (Chap. 2), the structural evolution and tectonic regions of Turkey (Chap. 3) and the geomorphological regions of Turkey (Chap. 4). The second group is composed of 31 chapters composed each with an example of well-known and less-known remarkable landscapes of Turkey, grouped into six themes. Each chapter presents the state of the art and knowledge about the formation of the landscapes and the evolution of the landforms composing them. The last Chap. 32 concerns the risks affecting the landscapes of Turkey today.