The Evaluation of the Soils and Rocks between Aşağıpınarbaşı (Selçuklu-Konya) and Divanlar (Karatay-Konya) in terms of Mineralogical Properties and Sinkhole Risk

Abstract

Cenozoic aged clastic and carbonate rocks crop out in a wide area in the region located between Aşağıpınarbaşı (Selçuklu-Konya) and Divanlar (Karatay-Konya). The İnsuyu formation, which consists of Mio-Pliocene clastic and carbonate rocks characterizing the sedimentation environments of the Great Konya Lake in the region, forms the basis of Cenozoic aged units. In the Pleistocene-Holocene period, clastic and locally carbonate rocks, represented by various terrestrial facies, extensively outcrop. The rocks outcropping in the region are commonly carbonate rocks largely represented by calcite and dolomite. The soils located in the region between Aşağıpınarbaşı (Selçuklu-Konya) and Divanlar (Karatay-Konya) commonly contain calcite, quartz, mica/illite, plagioclase, and clay minerals, and occasionally contain jarosite, gypsum, pyrite, aragonite, dolomite, amphibole, and K-feldspar. The presence of carbonate minerals such as calcite, dolomite, aragonite, vaterite, and kutnahorite, and sulfated minerals such as gypsum and jarosite, which can dissolve when they contact with water, is important in terms of the risk of sinkhole formation in the study area in the Konya Closed Basin where sinkholes continue to form widely in recent years.