Drainage Characteristics of the Cappadocia Region

The morphology of the widespread badlands in the region of Cappadocia has mainly been the result of erosional processes on ignimbrite and tuff formations. Fairy chimneys are the most characteristic landforms of badlands morphology and many factors are responsible for the formation of these landforms in the region. Bedding, hardness and porosity of ignimbrites, shape, size and frequency of discontinuities in ignimbrites, slope, climate and drainage properties etc. of the area all significantly contribute to the development of badlands and fairy chimneys. In this study, drainage properties, which are one of the main controlling factors in this development, were investigated referencing 1/25.000 scale topography maps. Firstly, all valley thalwegs were digitized using GIS. Subsequently, the Strahler order numbers of each stream were determined, and a drainage density map was created. Basing our results on maximum drainage densities, the highest drainage density (15.3 km/km2) in the study area was identified in ignimbrite and tuffs in the G？reme National Park, whilst, the lowest drainage densities were located on plateau surfaces (basalt (9 km/km2), dacite (4.2 km/km2) and andesite (3.2 km/km2) in the southern part of the study area. According to the Strahler order method, 53% and 22.7% of all streams belong to first and second orders, respectively. All these results show that drainage conditions on ignimbrite and tuffs are determinant factors in the formation of both badlands morphology and fairy chimneys