Kratergöl, a deep hypersaline crater-lake in the steppic zone of western-Anatolia (Turkey), subject to occasional limno-meteorological perturbations

Abstract

Krater (Aci)-Göl (Western Anatolia, Turkey) is a hypersaline lake situated at an altitude of 950 m in a volcanic desert area some 30 km west of the city of Karapinar. Its water chemistry was first studied by Irion (1975), who analysed a surface-water sample collected near the middle of the lake during late spring (Table 21.1). The lake occupies the crater of an extinct volcano (Fig. 21.1). There is no outlet, and the only visible inlet is the bed of an intermittent river in the north-east corner of the lake. On 27 July, 1973, a maximum depth of 76.5 m was recorded (station 1, Fig. 21.2). The shorelines are fairly straight along the northern rim, but in the south two basaltic peninsula’s create two rather deep bays. The crater relief around the lake is characterized by gentle slopes in the south and in the east, steep cliffs at some distance from the lake in the north and the west.