ABSTRACT
Province. A great many studies have been carried out on the Central Anatolian volcanism (Keller, 1974, Batum, 1978, Besang, et al., 1977, Pasquaré et al., 1988, Bigazzi et al. 1993, Druitt et al., 1995, Le Pennec et al., 1994, Froger et al., 1998, Kürkçüoğlu, 1988, Toprak 1998, Şen et al., 2003). The Central Anatolian volcanism is influenced by the intercontinental convergence associated with collision of the African plate with the Eurasian plate and produced many polygenetic volcanoes, such as Hasandag, Erciyes, Melendiz, Keciboyduran; monogenetic volcanoes, such as Golludag as domes, Acigol, Cora as maars and several hundreds of scoria cones and extensive ignimbrite sheets (Gencealioglu & Geneli, 2008). This volcanic belt extends about 300 km along a NE-SW direction. Mount Erciyes is situated in the eastern part of this belt. The related geological map of Mount Erciyes and its calderas, domes and cones are shown in Figure 3. The volcanic evolution of Mount Erciyes is divided into two stages named as Kocdag and New Erciyes (Kürkçüoğlu, 1998 and Şen, 2003). The stratigraphical column is given in Figure 3. Kocdag is mainly composed of lava flows of alkaline basalt, andesite and basaltic andesites. They constitute the eastern flank of the Mount Erciyes volcanic complex. The first explosive activity is the ignimbrite eruption, 2.8 Ma ago (Innocenti et al., 1975) and this eruption was followed by a caldera collapse. The new Erciyes stage represents different basaltic, andesitic, dacitic, rhyodacitic lava generations and associated pyroclastics. The volcanic products are related to central and adventive monogenetic vents (domes and cones). The last eruption dated 0.083 Ma (Notsu et al., 1995) corresponds to the fourth dacitic lava generation in the volcano-stratigraphical column (Figure. 4). The emplacement of the pyroclastics prior to rhyodacitic dome and debris avalanche deposits is the best known and most recent products of the volcano (Kürkçüoğlu, 1998).
