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The Arabia‐Eurasia continental collision created the Caucasus Mountains and the Anatolian and Iranian plateaus. Between the two plateaus, the Armenian Highland features young Holocene‐aged volcanoes. In this study, the P‐wave receiver functions from a new seismic array reveal a thick crust (up to ~52 km thick) beneath the Central Greater Caucasus and an unusually thin crust (32–35 km thick) beneath the northwestern part of Armenia near the Aragats stratovolcano and Gegham volcanic ridge formed by Pleistocene to Holocene monogenetic cinder cones. The average crustal VP/VS ratio in the Armenian Highland is anomalously high (≥1.9), with the highest value approaching 2.1 under the Gegham Ridge. Such high VP/VS ratios cannot be explained by an overall mafic crustal composition. Instead, the presence of partial melts is inferred in the lower crust based on the depth of the low‐velocity structure obtained by inversion of receiver function waveforms. Our study suggests that the postcollisional volcanism was potentially facilitated by the small‐scale removal of lithospheric mantle, resulting in a localized thinner crust balanced by thermal buoyancy and dynamic flow in the uppermost mantle beneath the Armenian Highland. Key Points: Thin crust with unusually high VP/VS ratios is found beneath the volcanoes Aragats and Gegham in the Armenian Highland based on a new arrayPartial melts probably exist near the base of the crust, where high heat flow is supplied from the uppermost mantleLithospheric mantle beneath northwestern Armenia may have been thinned or even completely removed during previous eruptions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sediment core has been retrieved from Vanevan peat (south-eastern shore of Lake Sevan, Armenia), which is today disconnected from Lake Sevan thanks to an artificial shallowing of the lake. Based on 5 radiocarbon dates, Vanevan record covers the Mid Holocene (from ca. 7800 to ca. 5100 cal. BP). The Late Holocene is today absent in the peat stratigraphy due to modern peat exploitation by surface mining. This study focuses on a multi-proxy approach including pollen, charcoals, and pollen-inferred climate reconstruction. An open-land, steppic vegetation is recorded up to ca. 7700 cal. BP, followed by a more forested landscape during the Mid Holocene (up to ca. 5700 cal. BP), and ending again with an open-land vegetation (to the end of record, 5100 cal. BP). This vegetation dynamics responds to general climate changes documented in the Near East. Whether human activities are documented since ca. 7500 cal. BP (Late Neolithic) in Vanevan, they remain marginal and probably did not affect the area. Early Holocene dry climate, which caused the steppic environment to be widespread through the Near East, is strongly related to low late spring precipitation (P May–Jun = 180 mm). Mid Holocene forested landscape and increasing lake-level seem related to late spring precipitation (+28%), which is the main change in estimated climate parameters. This has to be linked with reinforcement of the Westerlies and less active Siberian High, which are inversely involved in the following, dry phase starting at ca. 5700 cal. BP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]