the quaternary evolution of the gulf of corinth central greece coupling between surface processes and flow in the lower continental crust abstract the gulf of corinth in central greece is an active normal fault zone with particularly clear evidence of isostatic footwall uplift constrained by quaternary marine terraces and hanging wall subsidence and sedimentation it is bounded to the south by a pliocene to early pleistocene sedimentary basin which is now eroding into the gulf previous work has suggested that the relief across this region has increased dramatically since the early pleistocene due to the isostatic response to increased rates of footwall erosion and hanging wall sedimentation it is indeed assumed here that incision accompanying the draw down of global sea level at 0 9 ma during the first major pleistocene glaciation initiated the erosion of the basin south of the gulf of corinth and so abruptly increased the sedimentation rate in the gulf the resulting transient thermal and isostatic response to these changes is modelled with the subsiding depocentre and eroding sediment source coupled by flow in the lower continental crust the subsequent enhancement of relief involving an increase in bathymetry from near zero to 900 m and 500 m of uplift of the eroding land surface in the sediment source is shown to be a direct consequence of this change the model is sensitive to the effective viscosity of the lower crust and can thus resolve this parameter by matching observations a value of 6 1019 pa s is indicated suggesting a viscosity at the moho no greater than 1018 pa s similar transient topographic effects caused by increased rates of sedimentation and erosion are likely to be widespread within the geological record suggesting that this coupling process involving flow in the weak lower crust may be of major geological and geomorphological importance

state of strain in a quartzite mylonite central australia abstract the finite strain due to mylonitization of a quartzite has been determined using measurements of deformed quartz grains and ribbons developed from quartz grains equant before the deformation the mylonites are developed in long narrow steeply dipping mylonite zones within the chewings range quartzite of central australia this quartzite is very pure 98 quartz the quartzite surrounding the mylonite zones appears unstrained the samples examined exhibit severe flattening strains k values of between 0 01 and 0 12 and r values of between 5 and 30 have been determined application of formulae to calculate volume change assuming the model of an ideal ductile deformation band structure indicate significant apparent volume losses with values between 0 69 and 0 95 such values seem unreasonably high as no geological evidence for large volume loss is seen the band structure model is considered inapplicable for these mylonite zones the observed structural features can best be explained by a deformation history involving severe bulk shortening normal to the zones

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 hacilar 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

kinematics of the amanos fault southern turkey from ar ar dating of offset pleistocene basalt flows transpression between the african and arabian plates

kinematics of active left lateral faulting in se turkey from offset pleistocene river gorges improved constraint on the rate and history of relative motion between the turkish and arabian plates in the arabian platform of se turkey abundant evidence exists of fluvial incision by c 110 10 m since the late early pleistocene starting in or around marine oxygen isotope stage 22 at 870 ka this incision which has accompanied regional surface uplift as the isostatic response to regional erosion has progressively locked rivers into their gorges in landscape that formerly had much lower relief we use this effect to estimate 4 44 0 06 km of left lateral slip on this time scale on the golbasi turkoglu fault a segment of the east anatolian fault zone from offset river gorges giving a slip rate of 5 10 0 07 mm a 1 piercing points indicate that this fault has slipped a total of 19 km making its age 3 73 0 05 ma a total of 33 km of relative motion between the turkish and arabian plates is documented on this time scale in the vicinity of golbasi at an overall time averaged rate of 8 85 0 12 mm a 1 the estimated euler vector for relative motion between these plates being 0 89 0 01 ma 1 about 33 4 n 42 3 e this method can be readily applied to determine slip rates time averaged since the late early pleistocene on other strike slip fault zones worldwide

field evidences from northern dead sea fault zone south turkey new findings for the initiation age and slip rate abstract the left lateral strike slip dead sea fault zone dsfz extends from the red sea in the south to the east anatolian fault zone eafz in the north this study examines the northern part of the dsfz around amik basin and presents surface and subsurface geological evidence for the quaternary activity and initiation age of the northernmost dsfz the dsfz extends n s in the south of the amik basin where clear geological and morphological evidence exists for faulting geological observations around amik basin analyses of borehole data and electrical resistivity profiles within the amik basin indicate that the activity of the northern dsfz started after pliocene in the amik basin subsurface data in the basin suggest that the dsfz offsets a pre quaternary basin sinistrally by about 7 9 km the offset pre quaternary basin suggests at least 4 94 0 13 mm year slip rate for the northern part of the dsfz the karasu fault zone kfz extends in an en echelon pattern along the western margin of the karasu valley and it transfers the significant amount of slip from dsfz to the eafz

the river orontes in syria and turkey downstream variation of fluvial archives in different crustal blocks the geomorphology and quaternary history of the river orontes in western syria and south central turkey have been studied using a combination of methods field survey differential gps satellite imagery analysis of sediments to determine provenance flow direction and fluvial environment incorporation of evidence from fossils for both palaeoenvironments and biostratigraphy uranium series dating of calcrete cement reconciliation of palaeolithic archaeological contents and uplift modelling based on terrace height distribution the results underline the contrasting nature of different reaches of the orontes in part reflecting different crustal blocks with different histories of landscape evolution upstream from homs the orontes has a system of calcreted terraces that form a staircase extending to 200 m above the river new u series dating provides an age constraint within the lower part of the sequence that suggests underestimation of terrace ages in previous reviews this upper valley is separated from another terraced reach in the middle orontes by a gorge cut through the late miocene early pliocene homs basalt the middle orontes terraces have long been recognized as a source of mammalian fossils and palaeolithic artefacts particularly from latamneh near the downstream end of the reach this terraced section of the valley ends at a fault scarp marking the edge of the subsiding ghab basin a segment of the dead sea fault zone which has been filled to a depth of 1 km by dominantly lacustrine sediments of pliocene quaternary age review of the fauna from latamneh suggests that its age is 1 2 0 9 ma significantly older than previously supposed and commensurate with less uplift in this reach than both the upper and lower orontes two localities near the downstream end of the ghab have provided molluscan and ostracod assemblages that record somewhat saline environments perhaps caused by desiccation within the former lacustrine basin although they include fluvial elements the ghab is separated from another subsiding and formerly lacustrine depocentre the amik basin of hatay province turkey by a second gorge implicit of uplift this time cut through palaeogene limestone the ne sw oriented lowermost reach of the orontes is again terraced with a third and most dramatic gorge through the northern edge of the ziyaret dagi mountains which are known to have experienced rapid uplift probably again enhanced by movement on an active fault indeed a conclusion of the research in which these various reaches are compared is that the crust in the hatay region is significantly more dynamic than that further upstream where uplift has been less rapid and less continuous

faulting associated with historical and recent earthquakes in the eastern mediterranean region summary this paper summarizes evidence for surface faulting in historical and recent earthquakes in the eastern mediterranean region and in the middle east such information is particularly important for studies of active tectonics and for palaeoseismology we have found 78 cases of faulting pre 1900 and 72 post 1900 some of which show that faults that have apparently been inactive this century had already ruptured before 1900 for some cases faulting could not have been predicted from 20th century activity and in others it could have been expected but has not been observed during the instrumental period the data are suycient to allow the derivation of relationships between magnitude and rupture length

translocated plio pleistocene drainage systems along the arava fault of the dead sea transform abstract geomorphic and sedimentologic field studies and analyses of landsat 5 images and topographic maps indicate 15 km of left lateral displacement of a pliocene large stream and alluvial fans along the dead sea transform in southern israel and jordan in the central arava valley a rift valley located along the transform there is a notable discrepancy between the number and location of the feeding drainage basins within the eastern margins of the arava valley and those of the alluvial fans and the cross rift large stream a few of these large alluvial fans lack any feeding drainage basin furthermore east of the large stream there is no drainage basin that could have fed it these discrepancies between the physiography locations sizes and lithological compositions of the feeding drainage basins and of the alluvial fans can be explained by 15 km of left lateral movement since the late pliocene or the early pleistocene along the arava dead sea segment of the transform this is one of the largest displacements of a landform and surficial alluvial deposit in the world however the resulting average long term rate of movement is relatively small 0 3 0 75 cm year

holocene faulting and earthquake recurrence along the serghaya branch of the dead sea fault system in syria and lebanon an edited version of this paper was published in geophysical journal international by blackwell publishing blackwell publishing retains the copyright copyright 2003 blackwell publishing see also http www blackwell synergy com doi abs 10 1046 j 1365 246x 2003 01933 x http atlas geo cornell edu deadsea publications gomez2003 gji htm

the stommel and arons model and geothermal heating in the south pacific abstract the model of joyce and speer 1987 2 for the large scale influence of a geothermal heat source in an ocean basin is applied to the south pacific taking into account observed isopycnal depth variations and tracer distributions these observations are used with the model to estimate the required geothermal heating and strength of the background stommel and arons flow both heating and background flow are necessary in the model for agreement with observations

deformation around stepovers in strike slip fault zones abstract this stuck addresses the kinematics of stepovers in strike slip fault zones where left lateral faults step rightward or right lateral faults step leftward a stepover is regarded as containing an internal strike slip fault whose ends link to transform faults surrounded by uniformly distributed deformation the kinematics are governed by k the ratio of slip rates on the internal fault and transform faults and gq the angle between these taults the convergence direction across the deformation at angle to the internal fault is an azimuth along which vectors do not rotate around vertical axes the lebanon stopover on the dead sea fault zone and the big bend stepover on the san andreas fault zone provide case studies in lebanon the time averaged deformation since 15 ma involves k 0 06 32 and 34 it accounts for 30 of anticlockwise rotation of cretaceous magnetization vectors in the lebanon mountains and 50 rotation of jurassic vectors the present phase of deformation around the big bend which began at 5 7 ma and imolves k 0 89 20 and 98 has instead only caused small rotations both clockwise and anticlockwise much of this region s structure including the dramatic up to 80 clockwise rotation of magnetization vectors in the transverse ranges is shown to relate instead to an earlier deformation phase with much lower k

internal structure of the dead sea leaky transform rift in relation to plate kinematics abstract the structures along the dead sea transform rift are related to the motions of the sinai and arabia plates which border it and to the irregularities of their boundaries the total slip was 105 km left lateral but the present structures were formed mainly during the last 40 km of slip which probably occurred in the plio pleistocene along the southern half of the transform the strike slip motion takes place on en echelon faults this produces rhomb shaped grabens or pull aparts which are sometimes composite and in which there is local crustal separation thus much of the transform is leaky these structures occur in a morpho tectonic rift valley delimited by normal faults which express a small component of transverse extension along a few segments the shape of the transform is such that lateral motion produces local transverse compression the geometric relations of the structures along the transform define an eulerian pole of relative plate motions at 32 8 n 22 6 e 0 5 the older motion was somewhat different and is described by a pole located about 5 west of the above then the component of transverse extension and crustal separation was much smaller than now while local transverse compression was more important the northern half of the dead sea transform has an irregular shape and the bordering plates did not remain rigid as lateral motion continued here transverse compression is often important

late cenozoic uplift along the northern dead sea transform in lebanon and syria an edited version of this paper was published in earth and planetary science letters by elsevier science elsevier science retains the copyright to this paper copyright 2006 elsevier science see also http dx doi org 10 1016 j epsl 2005 10 029 http atlas geo cornell edu deadsea publications gomez2006 epsl htm

structure of the kizildag ophiolite a slow spread cretaceous ridge segment north of the arabian promontory the cretaceous kizildag ophiolite in southern turkey is part of the neotethyan ophiolite belt around the arabian promontory and consists of two structurally distinct massifs that are separated by a northwest striking high angle oblique fault this fault is interpreted as an accommodation zone that permitted differential movements between the adjacent crustal blocks during the evolution of the ophiolite the main massif to the west includes an antiformal peridotite core adjoined on the southeast by the normal fault bounded plutonic sequence and sheeted dike complex which collectively form a structural graben reminiscent of slow spreading ridge axes the inferred spreading axis and axis parallel fault contacts are intersected and offset at right angles by tear faults that are geometrically and kinematically analogous to transfer faults in modern oceanic lithosphere at slow spreading ridge environments the secondary massif to the east consists mainly of serpentinized peridotites directly overlain along tectonic and or intrusive contacts by lava flows rotated dike blocks and plutonic rocks and can be interpreted as a segment of oceanic lithosphere evolved at and near the accommodation zone the general structure of the ophiolite suggests its evolution via magmatic accretion and subsequent tectonic extension along a low angle shear zone at a slow spreading ridge environment

bouguer gravity and crustal structure of the dead sea transform fault and adjacent mountain belts in lebanon this paper was published in geology by the geological society of america gsa and gsa retains the copyright 1993 geological society of america p o box 9140 boulder co 80301 9140 see also http www geosociety org http atlas geo cornell edu deadsea publications khair1993 geology htm

tectonics of the pliocene homs basalts syria and implications for the dead sea fault zone activity timing of activity along the yammuneh segment lebanon syria of the dead sea fault zone and its northward continuation is still a subject of controversy our field structural analysis and observations on radar landsat and digital elevation model imagery of the homs region syria are of concern for plio quaternary tectonics of the whole northern part of the dead sea fault zone we show in this paper that the northern dead sea fault zone has remained active since the onset of the homs basalts at c 6 ma continuing movement in recent times is indicated by the occurrence of quaternary pull apart structures and offset of active ravines along the fault the homs basalts are related to the distinct oval shaped shin volcanic edifice of which the long axis trends nw the volcano was fed through nw striking tension fractures which now form dykes and volcanic ridges these patterns are consistent with a ne sw extension that occurred c 6 ma ago the northwestern end of the shin volcano is left laterally displaced c 20 km yielding a c 3 3 mm a 1 mean rate of relative movement between the arabian and african plates in the northern part of the dead sea fault zone the overall trace of the main active dead sea fault zone is not a single transform but forms an irregular plate boundary composed of transform fault and collision belt segments fine grained mylonite developed in the fault corridor may have favoured aseismic deformation in the shin volcano area

kinematic consistency between the dead sea fault zone and the neogene and quaternary left lateral faulting in se turkey a revised quantitative kinematic model has been determined for the dead sea fault zone dsfz and the left lateral fault zones in se turkey the relative motions of the african and arabian plates across the dsfz are represented by relative rotation about 31 1 n 26 7 e at 0 40 0 02 ma 1 the northern dsfz in syria and southern turkey is interpreted for the first time as a series of transpressional stepovers along which the left lateral slip rate is substantially less than the rate of relative plate motion because this slip is oblique to the plate motion the slip rate on the east anatolian fault zone eafz is estimated as 8 mm a 1 restoring its observed slip thus requires its age to be 4 ma the previous phase of deformation which involved slip on the malatya ovacik fault zone mofz before the eafz came into being is thus dated to 7 4 ma suggesting initiation of the north anatolian fault zone nafz at 7 ma not 5 ma as previously thought the total left lateral slip on the northern dsfz in southernmost turkey is estimated as at least 65 km partitioned with 45 km on the amanos fault 10 km on the east hatay fault and a further 10 km on the kirkpinar fault farther east much of this slip is inferred to have occurred during the miocene before the modern geometry of this plate boundary zone developed when it first formed the af ar plate boundary was relatively complex it initially reactivated preexisting structures in the palmyra foldbelt in syria and in the gaziantep region of southern turkey which were significantly misaligned relative to the plate motion requiring major components of shortening as well as left lateral slip the transition from this initial rather diffuse geometry to the present localised geometry of the dsfz across western syria occurred within the miocene the predicted rate of relative motion between the stable interiors of the turkish and african plates in the vicinity of their common boundary onshore of iskenderun gulf in southern turkey is estimated as westward at 9 mm a 1 however this promontory of the african plate is itself moving westward relative to the stable interior of this plate at 7 8 mm a 1 the rate of localised left lateral slip on the onshore part of this boundary the ne trending yakapinar goksun fault is thus estimated as only 2 mm a 1 this locality can also be regarded as within the distributed boundary zone between the turkish and arabian plates the estimated relative motion between these plates is at 8 7 mm a 1 towards the ssw partitioned between localised left lateral slip at 2 mm a 1 on the yakapinar goksun fault and at least 1 mm a 1 on the amanos fault and 2 5 mm a 1 on east hatay fault with at most distributed left lateral simple shear at 3 2 mm a 1 across the amanos mountains in between however the combined slip on left lateral faults east of the amanos mountains may be as high as 6 mm a 1 with slip at 1 7 mm a 1 on the amanos fault and at 4 3 mm a 1 on the east hatay fault and any active faults farther east this requires no more than 0 7 mm a 1 of distributed simple shear across the amanos mountains raising the possibility that this component of deformation may in fact be zero this small nonzero estimate possibly indicating a closure error arising from minor errors in predicted values of other relative motion vectors it is proposed that this boundary between the turkish and african plates first developed at the same time as the mofz and nafz but its original geometry involving left lateral slip on the karatas osmaniye fault has since become locked by the presence of relatively strong ophiolitic crust within this fault zone this quantitative kinematic model demonstrates for the first time how it is possible for the left lateral faulting accommodating the nnw sse relative motion between the arabian and african plates in nw syria to dovetail into the left lateral faulting accommodating the wsw ene relative motion between the turkish and arabian plates in se turkey

pliocene and quaternary regional uplift in western turkey the gediz river terrace staircase and the volcanism at kula abstract along the upper reaches of the gediz river in western turkey in the eastern part of the aegean extensional province the land surface has uplifted by 400 m since the middle pliocene this uplift is revealed by progressive gorge incision and its rate can be established because river terraces are capped by basalt flows that have been k ar and ar ar dated at present the local uplift rate is 0 2 mm a 1 uplift at this rate began around the start of the middle pleistocene following a span of time when the uplift was much slower this was itself preceded by an earlier uplift phase apparently in the late late pliocene and early early pleistocene when the uplift rate was comparable to the present the resulting regional uplift history resembles what is observed in other regions and is analogously interpreted as the isostatic response to changing rates of surface processes linked to global environmental change we suggest that this present phase of surface uplift amounting so far to 150 m is being caused by the nonsteady state thermal and isostatic response of the crust to erosion following an increase in erosion rates in the late early pleistocene most likely as a result of the first large northern hemisphere glaciation during oxygen isotope stage 22 at 870 ka we suggest that the earlier uplift phase responsible for the initial 250 m of uplift resulted from a similar increase in erosion rates caused by the deterioration in local climate at 3 1 ma this uplift thus has no direct relationship to the crustal extension occurring in western turkey the rate and sense of which are thought not to have changed significantly on this time scale our results thus suggest that the present often deeply incised landscape of western turkey has largely developed from the middle pleistocene onwards for reasons not directly related to the active normal faulting that is also occurring the local isostatic consequences of this active faulting are instead superimposed onto this background of regional surface uplift modelling of this surface uplift indicates that the effective viscosity of the lower continental crust beneath this part of turkey is of the order of 1019 pa s similar to a recent estimate for beneath central greece the lower uplift rates observed in western turkey compared with central greece result from the longer typical distances of fluvial sediment transport which cause weaker coupling by lower crustal flow between offshore depocentres and eroding onshore regions that provide the sediment source

some outstanding issues in the geology of lebanon and their importance in the tectonic evolution of the levantine region abstract the concept of pervasive and disruptive late neogene quaternary strike slip tectonics in lebanon has made establishing a satisfactory pre neogene palaeogeographic and palaeotectonic history for the area difficult research has allowed clarification of three fundamental issues that permit the setting of lebanon against its adjacent regions to be more firmly assigned the first issue is the identification of the significance of the 100 km long nne ssw trending monocline of the western lebanon flexure this feature is interpreted as a modified and rejuvenated early mesozoic hinge line that is presumed to be the northern continuation of the carmel sinai hinge line to the south the second issue is the correlation of the mount lebanon bekaa and anti lebanon complex with the adjacent intracontinental palmyride fold belt of syria through recognition in each of common divisions in structural style between a higher northern zone dominated by broadly spaced box folds and a lower southern zone with more numerous closely spaced and more internally complex folds the third issue involves the identification of major two stage late cretaceous to palaeogene syrian arc tectonism within lebanon resolution of these issues suggests a tectonic model for the region whereby the levantine region formed in two main phases the first of these was the multiphase late palaeozoic early mesozoic rifting of the area which imposed a fundamental extensional fabric over much of the region the second tectonic phase was the subsequent inversion of these extensional structures in the two stage syrian arc deformation of senonian and late palaeogene age which gave rise to the main lebanon structures it is this syrian arc tectonism rather than the late cenozoic strike slip that was probably the main structuring agent which affected the lebanon area the transpression from the braided dead sea fault motion although locally complex is an essentially neotectonic overprint on an already existing fabric offset of syrian arc structures in lebanon suggests that the total sinistral motion of the yammouneh fault segment of the dead sea fault is around 47 km

neotectonic deformation linking the east anatolian and karatas osmaniye intracontinental transform fault zones in the gulf of iskenderun southern turkey deduced from paleomagnetic study of the ceyhan osmaniye volcanics 1 left lateral strike slip along the dead sea fault zone dsfz between the african and arabian plates is partitioned into a complex set of motions at its northern extension where arabia impinges into the anatolian collage as a result the nature of the contemporary link between the east anatolian and dead sea transforms is unclear to quantify strike slip motion expressed as tectonic rotations along the inferred southwest continuation of the east anatolian fault zone eafz we have investigated the paleomagnetism of young 1 ma volcanics in the adana basin gulf of iskenderun region comprising the ceyhan osmaniye volcanic suite this volcanism is sited close to the intersection between the sinistral karatas osmaniye fault zone kofz and the neotethyian suture nine sites from a basaltic lava field in the vicinity of osmaniye are entirely of normal polarity and in the context of their very young morphologies are assigned to the brunhes chron declinations are mostly clockwise from the present field this age assignment identifies rapid recent 780 ka uplift at the head of the gulf of iskenderun and is linked to a diversion of the ceyhan river drainage and ongoing regional tilting eight sites yield a mean declination of 11 3 10 implying clockwise block rotation on riedel type fractures on the northwest side of the kofz seven lavas sites from a volcanic succession near botas at the southwestern extension of the volcanic lineament are of reversed polarity and rotated counterclockwise by 43 7 with respect to the present field polarity k ar and morphological evidence indicate an assignment toward the latter part of the matuyama chron and identify rapid neogene block rotation of a flake within the kofz an inferred maximum slip rate of 0 6 cm year on this fault zone is comparable with lower estimates of slip on the eafz and suggests that most strike slip on the dsfz is now being partitioned to the west of the gulf of iskenderun on a developing strike slip zone linking with the cyprus arc

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

temporary seismic quiescence se turkey summary the border zone that is the contact of the arabian plate with the three plates of turkey eurasia and iran to the north has been remarkably aseismic during this century by extending the period of observation backwards in time by a few centuries it is shown that this seismicity is atypical of the long term behaviour of the zone and due to a quiescent period in the activity of the area during the 20th century in turn this implies that short term data alone do not provide a reliable assessment of earthquake hazard

genesis of collision volcanism in eastern anatolia turkey late cenozoic volcanism in eastern anatolia extends in a broad sw ne trending belt across the arabia eurasia collision zone from the arabian foreland basin in the southwest and to the kars plateau and lesser caucasus in the northeast foreland volcanism is dominated by basaltic shield and fissure eruptions of transitional tholeiitic alkaline composition volcanism on the thickened crust north of the bitlis thrust zone varies from the mildly alkaline volcano nemrut and older mus volcanics in the south through the transitional calc alkaline alkaline volcanoes bingol and suphan and the alkaline volcano tendurek to the calc alkaline volcano ararat and older kars plateau volcanics in the north isotope sr nd and trace element systematics indicate that the lavas from the foreland were derived from the mantle lithosphere of the arabian continent which had been enriched by small volumes of asthenospheric melts over a period of time and that lavas from the alkaline volcanic area around mus and the volcanoes nemrut and tendurek north of the bitlis thrust zone were derived from a lithospheric source of similar composition either from the same underthrust arabian continent or from the bitlis massif microcontinent by contrast the transitional lavas from bingol and suphan and the calc alkaline lavas from ararat and kars were derived from lithosphere carrying a distinct subduction signature inherited from pre collision subduction events positive correlations between 87sr 86sr and sio2 and rb nb and sio2 in the alkaline and transitional lavas suggest that combined assimilation and fractional crystallization was an important process within at least part of the thickened crust of the collision zone trace element covariation diagrams such as y rb indicate the importance of hornblende crystallization at depth and orthopyroxene at shallow levels within the calc alkaline provinces in contrast to the consistently anhydrous crystallization sequences of the alkaline lavas trace element diagrams based on the covariation of compatible and incompatible elements point to moderate low degrees of partial melting with residual clinopyroxene throughout and residual garnet in the foreland province consideration of mineral stabilities mantle solidi and geothermal gradients before and after collision suggest that lithospheric thickening should both increase the thickness of metasomatized lithosphere and depress the metasomatized zone to greater depths probably beneath the amphibole and dolomite breakdown curves perturbation of the thickened lithosphere by delamination of the thermal boundary layer perhaps coupled with local stretching associated with pull apart basins on strike slip fault systems is then sufficient to generate melt the composition of that melt being largely dependent on the enrichment history of the lithosphere in question in eastern anatolia volcanism appears to have started between about 8 and 6 ma ago some 5 ma after the start of rapid uplift of the east anatolian plateau

global positioning system constraints on plate kinematics and dynamics in the eastern mediterranean and caucasus we present and interpret global positioning system gps measurements of crustal motions for the period 1988 1997 at 189 sites extending east west from the caucasus mountains to the adriatic sea and north south from the southern edge of the eurasian plate to the northern edge of the african plate sites on the northern arabian platform move 18 2 mm yr at n25 5 w relative to eurasia less than the nuvel 1a circuit closure rate 25 1 mm yr at n21 7 w preliminary motion estimates 1994 1997 for stations located in egypt on the northeastern part of africa show northward motion at 5 6 2 mm yr also slower than nuvel ia estimates 10 1 mm yr at n2 4 e eastern turkey is characterized by distributed deformation while central turkey is characterized by coherent plate motion internal deformation of 2 mm yr involving westward displacement and counterclockwise rotation of the anatolian plate the anatolian plate is de coupled from eurasia along the right lateral strike slip north anatolian fault naf we derive a best fitting euler vector for anatolia eurasia motion of 30 7 0 8 n 32 6 0 4 e 1 2 0 1 myr the euler vector gives an upper bound for naf slip rate of 24 1 mm yr we determine a preliminary gps arabia anatolia euler vector of 32 9 1 2 n 40 3 1 1 e 0 8 0 2 myr and an upper bound on left lateral slip on the east anatolian fault eaf of 9 1 mm yr the central and southern aegean is characterized by coherent motion internal deformation of 2 mm yr toward the sw at 30 1 mm yr relative to eurasia stations in the se aegean deviate significantly from the overall motion of the southern aegean showing increasing velocities toward the trench and reaching 10 1 mm yr relative to the southern aegean as a whole

evidence for 830 years of seismic quiescence from palaeoseismology archaeoseismology and historical seismicity along the dead sea fault in syria an edited version of this paper was published in earth and planetary science letters by elsevier science elsevier science retains the copyright to this paper copyright 2003 see also http dx doi org 10 1016 s0012 821x 03 00144 4 http atlas geo cornell edu deadsea publications meghraoui2003 epsl htm

review of the tectonics of the levant rift system the structural significance of oblique continental breakup abstract the levant rift system is an elongated series of structural basins that extends for more than 1000 km from the northern red sea to southern anatolia the system consists of three major segments the jordan rift in the south el gharb kara su rift in the north and the lebanese fault splay in between the rifted parts of this structural system are accompanied by intensively uplifted margins that mirror image the basinal pattern namely the deeper the basin the higher its margins and vice versa uplifts also occur along the fault splay section the jordan rift comprises axial basins that diminish in size from the south northwards and are separated from each other by shallow threshold zones along the axis of the rift where the margins are also subdued the lebanese fault splay consists of five faults that emerge from the northern edge of the jordan rift and trend like a fan between the north and the northeast one of these faults connects the jordan and el gharb kara su rifts the levant rift and its uplifted margins started to develop in the middle late miocene and most of the structural development occurred in the plio pleistocene the levant rift system is characterized by its oblique displacement and evidence for both dip slip and strike slip displacement was measured on its faults earthquakes also indicate that same mixed pattern some of them show strike slip offset and others normal it is generally conceded that the amount of normal offset along the boundary faults of the rift system reaches 8 10 km but the lateral displacement is disputed and offsets ranging from 11 to 107 km were suggested assessment of the available data led us to suggest that the sinistral offset along the levant rift system is approximately 10 20 km the similarity between the vertical and the lateral displacements the basin and threshold structural pattern of the rift model experiments in oblique rifting as well as the significant tectonic resemblance to the red sea and the east african rifts indicate that the levant rift is the product of continental breakup and it is probably an emerging oceanic spreading center