East Anatolian Fault

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Plate tectonic situation in the northeastern Mediterranean, the East Anatolian fault in purple, arrows show the directions of movement of the Anatolian and Arabian plates relative to the Eurasian plate

The East Anatolian Fault or East Anatolian Fault Zone is an approximately 550 km long sinistral transform fault in eastern Turkey and on the southeastern edge of the Anatolian plate .

Research history

The East Anatolian Fault was first described in 1969 and the first mapping took place in 1972 . Their length is still the subject of scientific discussion. The exact age of the fault zone is also not yet clearly determined; its formation is roughly dated to the end of the Miocene or the beginning of the Pliocene .

description

The fault zone forms the plate boundary between the Anatolian and the Arabian plates . It extends from Karlıova in a south-westerly direction to Antakya or Türkoğlu . At Çelikhan it forks into a northern and a southern branch. The southern branch meets the Dead Sea Transform Fault at Türkoğlu . At its northeastern end, the East Anatolian Fault meets the North Anatolian Fault .

The fault zone is not a continuous fault , but consists of five or six sections separated by a pull-apart basin (Lake Hazar) and several push-up zones . In addition to the main strands, there are also smaller, sub-parallel faults and indications of north-south and east-west oriented branches. A model based on six sections names them Karlıova, Ilıca, Palu, Pütürge, Erkenek and Pazarcık.

At the East Anatolian Fault Zone, the Anatolian Plate moves westward in relation to the Arabian Plate at a speed of about 6-10 millimeters per year.

In the East Anatolian Fault Zone, just like in the dextral North Anatolian Fault, earthquakes often take place, major quakes in recent years took place in 1998, 2003, 2010 and most recently in 2020 . The strongest known quake in the fault zone occurred on November 29, 1114, its magnitude is estimated to be over 7.8.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dan McKenzie : The East Anatolian Fault: A major structure in Eastern Turkey. In: Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Volume 29, number February 1, 1976, pp. 189-193, DOI: 10.1016 / 0012-821X (76) 90038-8 (English).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Fatih Bulut, Marco Bohnhoff, Tuna Eken, Christoph Janssen, Tuğbay Kılıç, Georg Dresen: The East Anatolian Fault Zone: Seismotectonic setting and spatiotemporal characteristics of seismicity based on precise earthquake locations. In: Journal of Geophysical Research. Volume 117, number B07304. 2012, DOI: 10.1029 / 2011JB008966 (English).
  3. ↑ a b c d Tamer Y. Duman, Ömer Emre: The East Anatolian Fault: Geometry, Segmentation and Jog Characteristics. (PDF; 1.37 MB) In: Çukurova Üniversitesi (Ed.): 7th International Symposium on Eastern Mediterranean Geology - Abstract Book. Adana 2010, p. 33, accessed on January 26, 2020.