The Marmara Sea (area 11,350 km²; volume 3378 km³; central basins >1100 m deep) straddles the North Anatolian Transform Fault separating the Eurasian and Aegean-Anatolian tectonic plates. Along with the shallow straits of Dardanelles and Bosphorus (depths ~63 m and ~40 m, respectively), the Marmara Sea forms the only marine connection between the Black Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. During Pleistocene glacial stages, the modern straits were subaerial valleys and the modern Marmara basin was occupied by the landlocked Propontis Lake. Previous researchers attributed major portions of a widely distributed uppermost Pleistocene–Holocene mud blanket (locally >10–25 m thick; volume 43–47 km³) to transport of suspended load through one or both of the straits, as either the Aegean Sea (at ~13.8 cal ka) or the Neoeuxine Lake (today's Black Sea, at ~11.1 cal ka) began to spill into the Marmara basin. To test these suggestions, the thicknesses and volume of the mud blanket were determined from >5000 line-km of airgun, sparker and boomer profiles and > 100 cores, and compared with the contemporary supply from local rivers to decide, by difference, if the straits might have had a significant role. Volume calculations for the detrital supply from rivers rely on (1) decades of daily water- and sediment-discharge data from gauging stations, acquired before 20th century dam construction and, independently, (2) the BQART model which uses a variety of hydrological, geomorphic, geological and climate data. These calculations demonstrate that >85–90% of the detritus in the offshore mud blanket was supplied by steep rivers (Kocasu River and its tributaries) and mountainous streams draining the highlands of the southern Marmara region. Geochemistry of the <38 μm fraction supports this source. Any input through the Dardanelles has been sporadic and limited to perhaps ~5 Gt of suspended load (equivalent to ~5.2 km³ of porous mud when deposited) because of changing directions and rates of flow since the Last Glacial Maximum. Resedimentation through mass wasting and transgressive shoreface erosion appear to be minor compared with river supply. The isolated nature of the Marmara basin and its supply from mostly a single watershed afford an opportunity to verify the reliability of this type of hindcast analysis, based upon sediment-discharge data and catchment models – analysis which cannot be completed with a comparable level of certainty along open marine coastlines elsewhere.

马尔马拉海（面积11,350 km ²；体积3378 km ³；中央盆地> 1100 m深）横跨北安那托利亚转换断层，将欧亚大陆和爱琴海－安纳托利亚构造板块分开。连同达达尼尔海峡和博斯普鲁斯海峡的浅海峡（分别为约63 m和〜40 m的深度），马尔马拉海形成了黑海和地中海东部之间的唯一海洋连接。在更新世的冰川期，现代海峡是陆上谷地，现代马尔马拉盆地被内陆的Propontis湖所占据。先前的研究人员将分布广泛的最上更新世-全新世泥岩覆盖层（局部> 10–25 m厚；体积43–47 km ^3）的主要部分归因于），以通过一个或两个海峡运输悬浮物，因为爱琴海（约13.8千卡）或新泻湖（今天的黑海，约11.1千卡）开始溢流到马尔马拉盆地。为了检验这些建议，泥浆的厚度和体积是根据> 5000线公里的气枪，火花塞和喷杆型材以及> 100根岩心确定的，并与当地河流的当代供应量进行比较，以区别决定是否海峡可能发挥了重要作用。河流的碎屑供应量的计算基于（1）20年前大坝建设之前获得的，来自计量站的数十年每日水和泥沙排放数据，以及（2）BQART模型，该模型使用了各种水文，地貌，地质和气候数据。这些计算结果表明，近海泥岩覆盖层中超过85-90％的碎屑是由陡峭的河流（科卡苏河及其支流）和排泄马尔马拉地区南部高地的山区河流提供的。<38μm的地球化学结果支持了这一来源。通过达达尼尔海峡的任何输入都是零星的，并且可能被限制在大约5 Gt的悬空负载（相当于〜5.2 km³个多孔泥浆沉积时），因为自上次冰川期以来，方向和流速发生了变化。与河水供应相比，通过质量浪费和海侵侵蚀进行的再沉积似乎很小。马尔马拉盆地的孤立性质及其主要来自单个流域的供应，为基于沉积物流量数据和集水模型的这种后验分析的可靠性提供了机会，而分析无法以相当的确定性水平完成沿着其他地方的开放海洋海岸线。