Neotectonics of East Anatolian Plateau (Turkey) and Lesser Caucasus: implication for transition from thrusting to strike-slip faulting

The east Anatolian plateau and the Lesser Caucasus are characterised and shaped by three major structures: (1) NW- and NE-trending dextral to sinistral active strike-slip faults, (2) N-S to NNW-trending fissures and /or Plio-Quaternary volcanoes, and (3) a 5-km thick, undeformed Plio-Quaternary continental volcano-sedimentary sequence accumulated in various strike-slip basins. In contrast to the situation in the east Anatolian plateau and the Lesser Caucasus, the Transcaucasus and the Great Caucasus are characterised by WNW-trending active thrust to reverse faults, folds, and 6-km thick, undeformed (except for the fault-bounded basin margins) continuous Oligocene-Quaternary molassic sequence accumulated in actively developing ramp basins. Hence, the neotectonic regime in the Great Caucasus and the Transcaucasus is compressional–contractional, and Oligocene-Quaternary in age; whereas it is compressional–extensional, and Plio-Quaternary in age in the east Anatolian plateau and the Lesser Caucasus.Middle and Upper Miocene volcano-sedimentary sequences are folded and thrust-to-reverse-faulted as a result of compressional–contractional tectonic regime accompanied by mostly calc-alkaline volcanic activity, whereas Middle Pliocene-Quaternary sequences, which rest with angular unconformity on the pre-Middle Pliocene rocks, are nearly flat-lying and dominated by strike-slip faulting accompanied by mostly alkali volcanic activity implying an inversion in tectonic regime. The strike-slip faults cut and displace dykes, reverse to thrust faults and fold axes of Late Miocene age up to maximum 7 km: hence these faults are younger than Late Miocene, i.e., these formed after Late Miocene. Therefore, the time period between late Serravalian (～ 12 Ma) continent–continent collision of Arabian and Eurasian plates and the late Early Pliocene inversion in both the tectonic regime, basin type and deformation pattern (from folding and thrusting to strike-slip faulting) is here termed as the Transitional period.Orientation patterns of various neotectonic structures and focal mechanism solutions of recent earthquakes that occurred in the east Anatolian plateau and the Caucasus fit well with the N–S directed intracontinental convergence between the Arabian plate in the south and the Eurasian plate in the north lasting since Late Miocene or Early Pliocene in places.