Rate of strike-slip motion on the Amanos Fault (Karasu Valley, southern Turkey) constrained by K–Ar dating and geochemical analysis of Quaternary basalts

The left-lateral Amanos Fault follows a 200-km-long and up to 2-km-high escarpment that bounds the eastern margin of the Amanos mountain range and the western margin of the Karasu Valley in southern Turkey, just east of the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea. Regional kinematic models have reached diverse conclusions as to the role of this fault in accommodating relative motion between either the African and Arabian, Turkish and African, or Turkish and Arabian plates. Local studies have tried to estimate its slip rate by K–Ar dating Quaternary basalts that erupted within the Amanos Mountains, flowed across it into the Karasu Valley, and have since become offset. However, these studies have yielded a wide range of results, ranging from 0.3 to 15 mm a⁻¹, which do not allow the overall role and significance of this fault in accommodating crustal deformation to be determined. We have used the Cassignol K–Ar method to date nine Quaternary basalt samples from the vicinity of the southern part of the Amanos Fault. These basalts exhibit a diverse chemistry, which we interpret as a consequence varying degrees of partial melting of their source combined with variable crustal contamination. This dating allows us to constrain the Quaternary slip rate on the Amanos fault to 1.0 to 1.6 mm a⁻¹. The dramatic discrepancies between past estimates of this slip rate are partly due to technical difficulties in K–Ar dating of young basalts by isotope dilution. In addition, previous studies at the key locality of Hacılar have unwittingly dated different, chemically distinct, flow units of different ages that are juxtaposed. This low slip rate indicates that, at present, the Amanos Fault takes up a small proportion of the relative motion between the African and Arabian plates, which is transferred southward to the Dead Sea Fault Zone. It also provides strong evidence against the long-standing view that its slip continues offshore to the southwest along a hypothetical left-lateral fault zone located south of Cyprus.     

Neotectonic deformation in the transition zone between the Dead Sea Transform and the East Anatolian Fault Zone, Southern Turkey: a palaeomagnetic study of the Karasu Rift Volcanism

In southern Turkey ongoing differential impingement of Arabia into the weak Anatolian collisional collage resulting from subduction of the Neotethyan Ocean has produced one of the most complex crustal interactions along the Alpine–Himalayan Orogen. Several major transforms with disputed motions, including the northward extension of the Dead Sea Fault Zone (DSFZ), meet in this region. To evaluate neotectonic motion on the Amanos and East Hatay fault zones considered to be northward extensions of the DSFZ, the palaeomagnetism of volcanic fields in the Karasu Rift between these faults has been studied. Remanence carriers are low-Ti magnetites and all except 5 of 51 basalt lavas have normal polarity. Morphological, polarity and K–Ar evidence show that rift formation occurred largely during the Brunhes chron with volcanism concentrated at 0.66–0.35 Ma and a subsidiary episode at 0.25–0.05. Forty-four units of normal polarity yield a mean of D/I=8.8°/54.7° with inclination identical to the present-day field and declination rotated clockwise by 8.8±4.0°. Within the 15-km-wide Hassa sector of the Karasu Rift, the volcanic activity is concentrated between the Amanos and East Hatay faults, both with left lateral motions, which have rotated blocks bounded by NW–SE cross faults in a clockwise sense as the Arabian Block has moved northwestwards. An average lava age of 0.5 Ma yields a minimum cumulative slip rate on the system bounding faults of 0.46 cm/year according with the rate deduced from the Africa–Arabia Euler vector and reduced rates of slip on the southern extension of the DSFZ during Plio-Quaternary times. Estimates deduced from offsets of dated lavas flows and morphological features on the Amanos Fault Zone [Tectonophysics 344 (2002) 207] are lower (0.09–0.18 cm/year) probably because they are limited to surface fault breaks and do not embrace the seismogenic crust.Results of this study suggest that most strike slip on the DSFZ is taken up by the Amanos–East Hatay–Afrin fault array in southern Turkey. Comparable estimates of Quaternary slip rate are identified on other faults meeting at an unstable FFF junction (DSFZ, East Anatolian Fault Zone, Karatas Fault Zone). A deceleration in slip rate across the DSFZ and its northward continuation during Plio-Quaternary times correlates with reorganization of the tectonic regime during the last 1–3 Ma including tectonic escape within Anatolia, establishment of the North and East Anatolian Fault Zones bounding the Anatolian collage in mid–late Pliocene times, a contemporaneous transition from transpression to transtension and concentration of all basaltic magmatism in this region within the last 1 Ma.     

Deformational behaviour of continental lithosphere deduced from block rotations across the North Anatolian fault zone in Turkey

Theoretical considerations of lithosphere deformation across transform plate boundaries predict an expression in terms of 3istributed deformation. The magnitude of rotation is expected to diminish away from the fault zone in a way which depends on the length of the fault, the amount of displacement, and the ductility of the lithosphere. Palaeomagnetic studies across the North Anatolian transform fault zone, which separates the Eurasian Plate and Anatolian Block in northern Turkey, show that clockwise rotations predicted from the sense of dextral motion are indeed present and have attained finite rotations of up to 270° during the 5 Ma history of Neotectonic deformation. Such rotations are, however, confined to narrow ( 10 km wide) zones between system-bounding faults and appear to have resulted from rotation in ball-bearing fashion of equidimensional blocks a few kilometres in size. Outside of this zone only anticlockwise rotations are observed; these are unrelated to deformation across the fault zone and record regional anticlockwise rotation of Turkey which is complementing clockwise rotation of Greece and accompanying Neogene opening of the Aegean Sea. The observed behaviour of continental lithosphere satisfies no plausible value of power law behaviour. We therefore conclude that relative motion across this transform boundary occurs as a discrete zone of intense deformation within a brittle layer comprising the seismogenic upper crust. This is presumed to be detached from a continuum deformation response to shearing in the lower crust and mantle beneath.     

Crustal velocity structure in the southern edge of the Central Alborz (Iran)

Inversion of local earthquake travel times and joint inversion of receiver functions and Rayleigh wave group velocity measurements were used to derive a simple model for the velocity crustal structure beneath the southern edge of the Central Alborz (Iran), including the seismically active area around the megacity of Tehran. The P and S travel times from 115 well-located earthquakes recorded by a dense local seismic network, operated from June to November 2006, were inverted to determine a 1D velocity model of the upper crust. The limited range of earthquake depths (between 2 km and 26 km) prevents us determining any velocity interfaces deeper than 25 km. The velocity of the lower crust and the depth of the Moho were found by joint inversion of receiver functions and Rayleigh wave group velocity data. The resulting P-wave velocity model comprises an upper crust with 3 km and 4 km thick sedimentary layers with P wave velocities (V_p) of ～5.4 and ～5.8 km s^?1, respectively, above 9 km and 8 km thick layers of upper crystalline crust (V_p ～6.1 and ～6.25 km s^?1 respectively). The lower crystalline crust is ～34 km thick (V_p ～ 6.40 km s^?1). The total crustal thickness beneath this part of the Central Alborz is 58 ± 2 km.     

Analysis of Ezinepazarı–Sungurlu Fault Zone (Turkey) using Landsat TM data and its kinematic implications

The study area is located between Çorum and Amasya along the Ezinepazar?–Sungurlu Fault Zone (ESFZ) which is regarded as the splay of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ). By this study, the 1/25,000 scaled geological map of the study area was prepared, and its stratigraphic and tectonic characteristics were unraveled as a result of palaeontological and petrographical analyses of the samples collected from different rock units. Particularly, geologic ages of the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous Ferhatkaya and Carcurum and Middle Eocene Çekerek formations were provided from palaeontological determinations. Using Landsat TM and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission 3 (SRTM 3) data of the region, the borders between the rock units and the tectonic characteristics in the study area were clarified by spectral and spatial enhancement methods. Kinematic characteristics of ESFZ obtained from the young sedimentary rocks along both sides of the fault zone were also inferred in this study. Understanding the kinematic and geometrical characteristics of the faults is important in terms of the seismotectonics of the region. In the statistical study conducted on the basis of the directions of the lineaments indicates the highest concentrations in general between N 50° - 60° E and N 60° - 70° E. Band 7 of the study area was enlightened in SE direction taking into consideration the relation of the geologic structures in the region with NAFZ and ESFZ and their general strike directions. Along with the formation of NAFZ, the region has undergone a counterclockwise rotation of approximately 20°–30°, which has developed between the “splay” faults in the south block of that fault. These faults are strike-slip faults formed under the compressional regime roughly in a NW–SE direction. It is noted that this tectonic regime has developed under compression in NW–SE direction, which was dominant in similar kinematic analysis studies conducted on NAFZ.     

Pattern recognition of major asperities using local recurrence time in Alborz Mountains, Northern Iran

In this study, seismic data recorded during the period 01/01/1996 to 09/01/2009 has been used to evaluate the seismic hazard potential along the Alborz region, Northern Iran. The technique of mapping local recurrence time, T _L, is used to map major asperities, which are considered as the areas with maximum hazard. We calculated T _L from a and b values which are in turn derived from the frequency–magnitude relation constants within a radius of 30 km about every corner point of a 10-km spacing grid. Since b value is inversely related to applied stress, the areas with lowest b values and/or shortest T _L are interpreted to locate the asperities or the areas of maximum seismic hazard. To test this method, we computed T _L map using seismic catalogues before and after the 2004 Baladeh earthquake of M _w 6.2. The local recurrence time map before the earthquake shows anomalously short T _L in the epicentral region of the Baladeh earthquake a decade before its occurrence. The T _L map after the earthquake indicates that this large event has redistributed the applied stress in the Alborz region. The microseismicity of the region after the Baladeh earthquake, however, suggests that there are two anomalies in T _L map positioned in Alborz. The places where these anomalies are observed can be considered as the areas with maximum seismic hazard for future large earthquake in the Alborz region.