late pleistocene uplift history along the southwestern marmara sea determined from raised coastal deposits and global sea level variations pleistocene raised coastal deposits characterized by locally abundant shells aragonite cemented beachrock and associated nearshore deposits border the western marmara sea at elevations of 0 50 m field observations confirm that these deposits formed during a series of transgressive and regressive events u th dates in 16 in situ shells from four localities show that the peak of the transgressions occurred during the highstands of oxygen isotopic stages 7 and 5 between 53 and 210 ka the elevations of these dated deposits can be used to quantify their post depositional uplift and indicate that the entire western marmara shelf including the strait of canakkale dardanelles has been rising at an average rate of 0 40 mm yr 1 since 225 ka the primary cause of uplift is the local compression associated with a restraining bend in the western segment of the north anatolian fault paleogeographic maps constructed using the average rate of tectonic uplift and detailed topographic and bathymetric maps reveal that prior to glacial oxygen isotopic stage 8 the marmara sea was never isolated from the aegean sea even when global sea level was low because the floor of the strait of canakkale was too deep early in its uplift history the dominance of mytilus edulis in raised coastal terraces dating from the lowstand of glacial oxygen isotopic stage 8 suggests that the degree of communication between the aegean sea and marmara sea was comparable to that of the present during the peak of glacial oxygen isotopic stage 6 the floor of the strait was subaerially exposed isolating the marmara sea for the first time in the pleistocene from the higher salinity mediterranean water inflow and possibly causing it to become a blackish water lake during interglacial isotopic stages 9 7 and 5 the strait of canakkale was very wide and deep 100 125 m and there were two subsidiary channels bolayir and eceabat channels providing additional links between the aegean sea the marmara sea further promoting significant water exchange between these basins the dominance of ostrea edulis in the raised terraces dating from isotopic stages 5 and 7 confirms an enhanced penetration of the mediterranean water mass into the marmara sea the history of communication between the black sea fed by central and northern european drainage systems and the low latitude mediterranean sea is of fundamental importance in understanding the genesis of organic rich sapropel deposits throughout the region the results presented in this paper caution against the simple assumption that sea level change alone controlled the degree of connection across this oceanographic gateway instead the physiography and paleoceanography of the region were controlled both by variations in global sea level and the rate of uplift in an area of active transpression

an active deep marine strike slip basin along the north anatolian fault in turkey the tekirdag depression within the marmara sea in the mediterranean region is an active rhomb shaped strike slip basin along the north anatolian fault with a basin floor at a water depth of 1150 m new multichannel seismic reflection data and on land geological studies indicate that the basin is forming along a releasing bend of the strike slip fault and is filled with syntransform sediments of pliocene quaternary age the basin is bounded on one side by the north anatolian fault and on the other side by a subparallel normal fault which forms the steep submarine slope in cross section the basin is strongly asymmetric with the thickness of the syntransform strata increasing from a few tens of meters on the submarine slope to over 2 5 km adjacent to the north anatolian fault seismic sections also show that the slope forming normal fault connects at depth to the north anatolian fault implying that the basin is completely detached from its substratum the whole structure can be envisaged as a huge rather flat negative flower structure the releasing bend of the north anatolian fault responsible for the formation of the basin is flanked by a constraining bend along the constraining bend the syntransform strata are being underthrust implying a recent change in the direction of the regional displacement vector this thrusting is responsible for the uplift of the submarine slope to a height of 924 m possibly by a mechanism of elastic rebound regional geology suggests that most of the syntransform strata are lacustrine with only the topmost few hundred meters consisting of deep marine clays the anomalous present depth of the tekirdag depression is due to reduced quaternary sedimentation coupled with high rates of displacement along the north anatolian fault which amounts to 20 mm yr in the marmara sea region

the last reconnection of the marmara sea turkey to the world ocean a paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic perspective during the late glacial marine isotope stage 2 the marmara sea transformed into a brackish lake as global sea level fell below the sill in the dardanelles strait a record of the basin s reconnection to the global ocean is preserved in its sediments permitting the extraction of the paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic history of the region the goal of this study is to develop a high resolution record of the lacustrine to marine transition of marmara sea in order to reconstruct regional and global climatic events at a millennial scale for this purpose we mapped the paleoshorelines of marmara sea along the northern eastern and southern shelves at cekmece prince islands and imrali using data from multibeam bathymetry high resolution subbottom profiling chirp and ten sediment cores detailed sedimentologic biostratigraphic foraminifers mollusk diatoms x ray fluorescence geochemical scanning and oxygen and carbon stable isotope analyses correlated to a calibrated radiocarbon chronology provided evidence for cold and dry conditions prior to 15 ka bp warm conditions of the bolling allerod from 15 to 13 ka bp a rapid marine incursion at 12 ka bp still stand of marmara sea and sediment reworking of the paleoshorelines during the younger dryas at 11 5 to 10 5 ka bp and development of strong stratification and influx of nutrients as black sea waters spilled into marmara sea at 9 2 ka bp stable environmental conditions developed in marmara sea after 6 0 ka bp as sea level reached its present shoreline and the basin floors filled with sediments achieving their present configuration

global positioning system measurements of present day crustal movements in the arabia africa eurasia plate collision zone we present and interpret global positioning system gps measurements of crustal motions for the period 1988 1994 at 54 sites extending east west from the caucasus mountains of southern russia georgia and armenia to the aegean coast of turkey and north south from the southern edge of the eurasian plate pontus block to the northern edge of the arabian platform viewed from a eurasia fixed reference frame sites on the northern arabian platform move n38 13 w at 20 3 mm yr roughly consistent with the velocity implied by nuvel 1a circuit closure n23 7 w at 24 2 mm yr the motion of arabia appears to be transferred directly to the region of turkey north of the suture however eastern turkey is characterized by distributed deformation while central western turkey is characterized by coherent plate motion involving westward displacement and counterclockwise rotation of the anatolian plate internal deformation within the central part of the anatolian plate is less than 2 mm yr the anatolian plate is decoupled from eurasia along the right lateral strike slip north anatolian fault naf this different response in eastern and western turkey to the collision of arabia may result from the different boundary conditions the hellenic arc forming a free boundary to the west and the asian continent and oceanic lithosphere of the black and caspian seas forming a resistant boundary to the north and east we derive a best fitting euler vector for anatolia eurasia motion of 29 2 0 8 n 32 9 0 4 1 3 0 1 m y the mapped surface trace of the naf corresponds well to a small circle about this pole the new euler vector implies an upper bound for naf slip rate of 30 2 mm yr i e assuming all relative motion is accommodated along the naf using the nuvel 1a euler vector for arabia eurasia and the gps euler vector for anatolia eurasia we determine an arabia anatolia euler vector of 31 2 n 45 2 e 0 9 0 1 m y and an upper bound on the east anatolian fault slip rate of 15 3 mm yr the aegean trough region of western turkey deviates significantly from coherent plate rotation in addition to rotating with anatolia this region shows roughly n s extension at a rate of 14 5 mm yr taken together with satellite laser ranging results along the hellenic arc the contemporary pattern of deformation indicates increasing motions toward the arc suggesting that the westward displacement and counterclockwise rotation of anatolia is driven both by pushing from the arabian plate and by pulling or basal drag associated with the foundering african plate along the hellenic subduction zone

late pleistocene holocene evolution of the northern shelf of the sea of marmara abstract chirp sub bottom profiling multibeam bathymetric mapping and a combination of faunal and isotopic analysis of molluscs and foraminifera in sediment cores on the northern shelf of the sea of marmara som provide evidence of sea level excursions water exchanges between the adjacent mediterranean and black seas and oscillating salinity over the last 160 ka bp during the marine isotope stages mis 2 mis 3 mis 4 and mis 6 the som disconnected from the mediterranean sea and evolved into a lake during mis 1 mis 5 and mis 7 the som reconnected and became salty once again sapropels formed shortly after each invasion of mediterranean saltwater observed in our cores concurrent suboxic dysoxic conditions prevailed over quite shallow substrates on the shelf ancient shorelines are pervasive at 85 m on the northern shelf and in the region of prince islands coincident with the elevation of the modern bedrock sill in the canakkale dardanelles strait at times when global eustatic sea level dropped below this sill the surface of the som stabilized at its outlet and freshened thus this particular shoreline is interpreted as the edge of the most recent som lake that existed from about 75 ka bp to 12 ka bp the freshening is observed in very light 6 values of 18 o measured on freshwater molluscs and the complete absence of foraminifera two brief lacustrine episodes during mis 5 suggest that the level of the canakkale outlet might have been as shallow as 50 m in the past a likelihood supported by submerged terraces along its margins bounding the modern central channel and the presence of an euryhaline biofacies in unit l4 1 corresponding to mis 5b 18 o profiles and carbon 14 dating show that salinification of the som and the blossoming of bioherms evolved rapidly after the latest connection with the mediterranean at 12 ka bp however freshening proceeded more slowly once the connection was severed

from transpression to transtension changes in morphology and structure around a bend on the north anatolian fault in the marmara region abstract the east west trending north anatolian fault makes a 17 bend in the western marmara region from a mildly transpressional segment to a strongly transtensional one we have studied the changes in the morphology and structure around this fault bend using digital elevation models field structural geology and multi channel seismic reflection profiles the transpression is reflected in the morphology as the ganos mountain a major zone of uplift 10 km wide and 35 km long elongated parallel to the transpressional ganos fault segment west of this bend flat lying eocene turbidites of the thrace basin are folded upwards against this ganos fault forming a monocline with the ganos mountain at its steep southern limb and the flat lying hinterland farther north at the flat limb the sharp northern margin of the ganos mountain coincides closely with the monoclinal axis the strike of the bedding and the minor and regional fold axes in the eocene turbidites in ganos mountain are parallel to the trace of the ganos fault indicating that these structures as well as the morphology have formed by shortening perpendicular to the north anatolian fault the monoclinal structure of ganos mountain implies that the north anatolian fault dips under this mountain at 50 and this ramp terminates at a decollement at a calculated depth of 8 km east of this fault bend the northward dip of the north anatolian fault is maintained but it has a normal dip slip component this has led to the formation of an asymmetric half graben the tekirdag basin in the western sea of marmara containing a thickness of up to 2 5 km of pliocene to recent syn transform sediments as the ganos uplift is translated eastwards from the transpressional to the transtensional zone it undergoes subsidence by southward tilting however a morphological relic of the ganos uplift is maintained as the steep northern submarine slope of the tekirdag basin the minimum of 3 5 km of fault normal shortening in the ganos mountain and the minimum of 40 km eastward translation of the ganos uplift indicate that the present fault geometry has existed for at least the last 2 million years

seismic imaging of the three dimensional architecture of the cinarcik basin along the north anatolian fault the cinarcik basin is a transtensional basin located along the northern branch of the northern north anatolian fault naf in the sea of marmara the eastern half of which has been identified as a seismic gap during the seismarmara 2001 experiment a dense grid of multichannel seismic reflection profiles was shot covering the whole cinarcik basin and its margins the new seismic images provide a nearly three dimensional view of the architecture of the basin fault system at depth and sedimentary infill and provide insight into its tectonic evolution along both northern and southern margins of the basin seismic reflection data show deep penetrating faults hence long lived features which have accommodated a large amount of extension there is no indication in the data for a single throughgoing strike slip fault neither a cross basin fault nor a pure strike slip fault running along the northern margin faster opening is presently observed in the eastern part of the basin the cinarcik basin seems to have developed as a transtensional basin across strike slip segments of the northern naf for the last few million years

uplift and subsidence from oblique slip the ganos marmara bend of the north anatolian transform western turkey abstract bends that locally violate plate motion parallel geometry are common structural elements of continental transform faults we relate the vertical component of crustal motion in the western marmara sea region to the nnw pointing 18 bend on the northern branch of the north anatolian fault naf n between the ganos segment which ruptured in 1912 and the central marmara segment a seismic gap crustal shortening and uplift on the transpressive west side of the bend results in the ganos mountain crustal extension and subsidence on the transtensional east side produce the tekirdag basin we propose that this vertical component of deformation is controlled by oblique slip on the non vertical north dipping ganos and tekirdag segments of the north anatolian fault we compare holocene with quaternary structure across the bend using new and recently published data and conclude the following first bend related vertical motion is occurring primarily north of the naf n this suggests that this bend is fixed to the anatolian side of the fault second current deformation is consistent with an antisymmetric pattern centered at the bend up on the west and down on the east accumulated deformation is shifted to the east along the right lateral naf n however leading to locally opposite vertical components of long and short term motion uplift has started as far west as the landward extension of the saros trough current subsidence is most intense close to the bend and to the ganos mountain while the basin deepens gradually from the bend eastward for 28 km along the fault the pattern of deformation is time transgressive if referenced to the material but is stable if referenced to the bend the lag between motion and structure implies a 1 1 1 4 ma age for the basin at current dextral slip rate 2 0 2 5 cm year third the tekirdag is an asymmetric basin progressively tilted down toward the naf n which serves as the border fault progressive tilt suggests that the steep northward dip of the fault decreases with depth in a listric geometry at the scale of the upper crust and is consistent with reactivation of paleogene suture related thrust faults fourth similar thrust fault geometry west of the bend can account for the ganos mountain anticline monocline as hanging wall block folding and back tilting oblique slip on a non vertical master fault may accommodate transtension and transpression associated with other bends along the naf and other continental transforms

investigation of the tectonics of the main marmara fault by means of deep towed seismic data abstract we report a study of the active principal deformation zone pdz of the main marmara fault mmf in the sub basins of the sea of marmara by means of deep towed seismic pasisar as well as multi beam bathymetry data collected by ifremer s r v le suroit in september 2000 our main objective is to investigate the active deformation within the uppermost sedimentary layers with a much higher resolution than hitherto has been available to the west of the sea of marmara the pdz is located along the southern flank of the tekirdag basin where the sediments are affected by steep reverse faults dipping toward the north e w strike slip faults are also observed in the central part of the tekirdag basin and thrusting occurs along its n50 trending margin we interpret these structures in terms of a slight clockwise rotation in the basin north of the pdz to the east the pdz enters the central basin and follows a steep scarp along the southern flank of a tectonic depression the scarp consists of an en echelon fault system with a normal component these faults are combined with small parallel anticlines and synclines that extend along the southern portion of the depression the northern scarp of the depression is made of a mixed system of faults with both normal and reverse components associated with anticlines and synclines these faults are best interpreted as right lateral strike slip faults with a vertical component that is dominantly normal these faults and the sigmoid shape of the depression are compatible with a clockwise rotation above the pdz this recent tectonic structure appears to be superimposed over a pre existing graben that is now essentially deactivated the pdz continues eastwards out of the central basin as a n50 e trending nw verging thrust system toward the kumburgaz basin that is located on a restraining bend of the pdz this shortening zone consists of two main n60 e trending branches the northern one is more pronounced and composed of two successive restraining bends the southern branch is smoother and forms a gently curved connection between the two segments of the pdz this suggests that the pdz migrates southward to cut through this restraining bend further east the pdz enters the cinarcik basin along its northern scarp active deformation observed on the pasisar profiles along the 290 trending eastern portion of this scarp consists of n110 5 trending dextral strike slip faults connecting short segments of active n130 140 normal faults that control elongated depocenters along the southern flank of the cinarcik basin the e w izmit fault enters the basin from the east pasisar data confirm the extension of the izmit strike slip fault into the cinarcik basin and the large development of normal faulting along the southern flank of the basin some of the normal faulting observed here may be related to horse tail termination of the izmit fault while most of it is the expression of strain partitioning

tectonic evolution of the marmara sea and its surroundings abstract the basins in the marmara sea are the products of a superimposed evolutionary history defined by two different aged fault systems the early miocene early pliocene thrace eskisehir fault zone and its branches and the late pliocene recent north anatolian fault and its branches the thrace eskisehir fault and its westward branching secondary fault systems define the early neotectonic signature in the region the late neotectonic period started at the end of the early pliocene when the north anatolian fault divided the thrace eskisehir fault into four parts during the late neotectonic period the north anatolian fault extended westward as a number of splays by joining with the ganos bandirma behramkale and manyas edremit fault zones the branches of the north anatolian fault zone nafz caused the evolution of a number of basins which differ in character depending on the trend and past characteristics of the older branches that became connected since the northern branch of the north anatolian fault is connected to the n80 e trending ganos fault zone gfz in the west a single buried fault has developed in the marmara sea causing the well known troughs and ridges superimposed onto the negative flower structure formed by the gfz in the early neotectonic period the middle strand which extends from iznik lake to bandirma is oriented east west up to the n60 e trending bandirma behramkale fault zone then turns southward in the vicinity of bandirma forming a region dominated by compressional tectonics this bending caused n30 e trending tension in addition to the strike slip motion between the eastern part of gemlik bay and bandirma bay the southern branch of the nafz on the other hand produced three pull apart basins with different characteristics along the yenisehir bursa and manyas segments the southern branch of the nafz connected to the manyas edremit fault zone which is oriented n45 e to the south of manyas and the associated bending and rotation caused a n15 e trending extension in addition to the strike slip regime between manyas and uluabat the branches of north anatolian fault cut through the thrace eskisehir fault at three places the east marmara sea region in gemlik bay and to the east of bursa giving lateral offsets of 58 59 7 8 and 10 11 km respectively the cumulative motion is 75 78 km corresponding to the total lateral offset of the north anatolian fault in the region the correlation of these offsets with global positioning system slip vectors and with stratigraphic results implies that the north anatolian fault reached into the marmara sea region about 3 5 million yr ago tectonic processes forming the marmara sea and its environs were initiated by the thrace eskisehir fault and its splays have been most recently controlled by the north anatolian fault and its splays during the last 3 5 million yr

rapid subsidence and sedimentation from oblique slip near a bend on the north anatolian transform fault in the marmara sea turkey several basins are developing near bends on strands of the north anatolian transform fault in northwest turkey oblique slip on these faults rather than strain partitioning accounts for trans tension and subsidence these basins are asymmetric and tilt and subside most rapidly at their narrow ends near the bends the turbidite surface marking the floor of the cinarcik basin eastern marmara sea was mostly abandoned at a sudden drop in sedi mentation which was likely coincident with the 14 ka lake sea transition and is now a warped reference surface from which we can measure strain and sedimentation subsidence and tilt are rap id but do not require late quaternary changes in regime they are linked to transcurrent motion by slip parallel to an oblique bend on the north anatolian fault and suggest tsunamogenic ver tical motion in large marmara sea earthquakes

architecture of stacked quaternary deltas correlated with global oxygen isotopic curve a distinctive pattern of quaternary stacked prograded deltas and intervening transgressions on a rapidly subsiding continental margin in the eastern mediterranean has been dated from offshore wells simple modeling using the quaternary oxygen isotope record as a proxy sea level curve has demonstrated that this pattern is a consequence of sea level change the progradational pattern is dependent principally on the amount of time that is available between successive highstands to provide accommodation space by subsidence on rapidly subsiding continental margins the standard pattern of stacked deltas can be used as a chronological tool in undated quaternary seismic sequences

north marmara trough architecture of basin infill basement and faults from psdm reflection and obs refraction seismics abstract the reflection and refraction seismic data collected during the seismarmara leg 1 survey in the sea of marmara provide detailed imaging of sedimentary record and fault activity with deep penetration into its basement first a detailed analysis of pre stack depth migrated seismic lines crossing the central basin enable us to discuss the space and time relations of the large and smaller nested basins of the inner depression as well as the diversity of style and rate of activity of motion at the diverse basin border faults second forward modeling of obs refraction arrival times reveals the effect of compaction on the sedimentary pile whereas its layering imaged by mcs as seismic reflectors rather recorded the tectonic evolution another major result of the refraction modeling is the identification of the crystalline basement the latter is imaged about 1 or 2 km deeper than the base of the layered sedimentary sequence imaged on the coincident mcs profiles this basement exhibits sharp topography across the central high the kumburgaz basin and the eastern tip of the cinarcik north imrali basin in an unexpected way with respect to the sea bottom depressions we furthermore imaged several large tilted basement blocks which separate the deep basins as between the cinarcik and imrali basins despite the varying width of the nmt and the sizes of the tilted blocks we propose that the imaged finite deformation results from a similar process of partitioning deformation over more than one or even two faults across the nmt that may have changed activity with time and space

recognition of active faults and stepover geometry in gemlik bay sea of marmara nw turkey abstract we investigated gemlik bay of the marmara sea with an extensive high resolution shallow seismic survey to locate and map active traces of the southern strand of the north anatolian fault naf the southern strand splits from the main trace of the north anatolian fault about 80 km southeast of izmit and extends as a continuous trace to the west for about 140 km to gemlik bay where it enters the sea of marmara the seismic profiles reveal many faults that offset the quaternary deposits we interpret that four major fault zones play a significant role in shaping gemlik bay the gemlik kocadere mudanya gencali and armutlu faults and propose that these faults are responsible for the formation of two prominent morphological features in the bay namely burgaz depression and gemlik rise which are a pull apart basin and a push up structure respectively closely spaced profiles to interpret the fault patterns and complex kinematics therefore are shown to be necessary in such areas besides active fault traces along the profiles we also observed mass movements along the southern shore offshore mudanya zeytinbagi and kursunlu in the study area although no destructive earthquakes were experienced in the region recently the mass movements observed on the seafloor indicate remarkable past activity along the southern strand of the north anatolian fault which is overshadowed by the northern strand in 20th century from seismicity point of view

holocene slip rate of the north anatolian fault beneath the sea of marmara abstract the north anatolian fault naf is a major continental transform system that extends e w across turkey for over 1600 km separating the anatolian and eurasian plates a portion of its northern branch runs below the sea of marmara this portion constitutes a seismic gap because the last destructive earthquakes occurred at the western 1912 ganos earthquake m 7 4 and eastern 1999 izmit and duzce earthquakes m w 7 4 7 2 edges of the marmara basin it is likely that fault ruptures will fill this gap in the next decades this region of the north anatolian fault is critical to our understanding of fault interactions stress buildup during seismic cycle and seismic hazard in the istanbul area we obtained high resolution acoustic images of the naf in the floor of the eastern marmara sea gulf of izmit and measured fault related offsets of 14 c dated subseafloor channels and paleoshorelines the resulting average slip rate on the fault is 10 mm year for the last 10 kyr this is less than half the total anatolia eurasia relative motion estimated at 24 mm year for the last 10 years from satellite geodetic measurements we conclude that either much of the strike slip motion along this branch of the naf did not occur on the main fault segment or the slip rate increased recently or both these results affect kinematic models of the naf and assessments of seismic hazard for the city of istanbul and the surrounding region

the active main marmara fault abstract this paper presents selections from and a synthesis of a high resolution bathymetric sparker and deep towed seismic reflection data set recently acquired by the french ifremer r v le suroit in an e w deep trough that forms the northern half of the sea of marmara in nw turkey it includes the first high resolution complete bathymetric map of this area a single throughgoing dextral strike slip fault system which is the western continuation of the northern branch of the north anatolian fault cuts this trough lengthwise and joins the 1999 8 17 kocaeli earthquake fault with the 1912 8 09 arkoy murefte earthquake fault both of which display strike slip offset in its eastern one fourth the structure follows closely the northern margin of the deep trough whereas in the west it hugs its southern margin the eastern one fourth of the structure has a minor component of its displacement distributed across the deep trough owing to a possible original bend in the course of the dextral structure the present course of the north anatolian fault in the sea of marmara originated some 2 105 a ago by cutting across the older basin fabric generated by a dominant nne ssw extension before it began taking up major motion in the pliocene

the sea of marmara a two dimensional seismic reflection profile data archive 1 in 1997 1500 km of high resolution two dimensional 2 d reflection seismic data were acquired in the sea of marmara region western turkey an archive of the 40 profiles of processed seismic data in segy format together with the differential global positioning system dgps locations and acquisition parameters for each profile are available for download from iris

uniform basin growth over the last 500 ka north anatolian fault marmara sea turkey abstract much of the northern strand of the north anatolia fault system in the marmara sea the main marmara fault is a seismic gap posing a high risk for istanbul deep bathymetric and sedimentary basins are structurally associated with the main marmara fault basin growth including tilting of their margins is thus linked to fault slip through releasing and restraining segments of this and other branches of the north anatolian fault system whether this system has been steady state through at least the last half of the quaternary or whether the main marmara fault more recently propagated through and deactivated pull apart basins is one of the main controversies a published age model and stratigraphic framework for these basins has been lacking and tectonic history models for the marmara sea have relied on extrapolating present deformation rates back through time over 3000 km of new high resolution multichannel seismic reflection combined with existing lower resolution seismic reflection and multibeam bathymetric data make possible a detailed regional stratigraphic interpretation in particular a stack of shelf edge deltas are imaged and interpreted as glacial period deposition during low sea lake levels reflections from the tops of these deltas and from unconformities were correlated across much of marmara sea basins and highs providing critical stratigraphic control we correlate the low stand deltas with known eustatic sea level minima by developing proxies for time from vertical separation of strata across normal faults tilts and sedimentary volumes a preferred age model is proposed at least back to oxygen isotopic stage 14 at 536 ka during this time interval tilting of basin margins vertical separation across the main marmara fault adjacent to western istanbul and tilt related slow collapse on the south flank of the cinarcik basin all indicate steady state basin growth and fault slip

seismic hazard in the marmara sea region following the 17 august 1999 izmit earthquake on 17 august 1999 a destructive magnitude 7 4 earthquake occurred 100 km east of istanbul near the city of izmit on the north anatolian fault this 1 600 km long plate boundary 1 2 slips at an average rate of 2 3 cm yr 1 refs 3 5 and historically has been the site of many devastating earthquakes 6 7 this century alone it has ruptured over 900 km of its length 6 models of earthquake induced stress change 8 combined with active fault maps 9 had been used to forecast that the epicentral area of the 1999 izmit event was indeed a likely location for the occurrence of a large earthquake 9 10 here we show that the 1999 event itself significantly modifies the stress distribution resulting from previous fault interactions 9 10 our new stress models take into account all events in the region with magnitudes greater than 6 having occurred since 1700 ref 7 as well as secular interseismic stress change constrained by gps data 11 these models provide a consistent picture of the long term spatio temporal behaviour of the north anatolian fault and indicate that two events of magnitude equal to or greater than the izmit earthquake are likely to occur within the next decades beneath the marmara sea south of istanbul

structural relationship between the sea of marmara basin and the north anatolian fault zone the north anatolian fault naf zone is 1500 km long extending almost up to the greek mainland in the west it is a seismically active right lateral strike slip fault that accommodates the relative motion between the turkish block and black sea plate the sea of marmara lies along the western part of the naf and shows evidence of subsidence in this area pure strike slip motion of the fault zone changes into extensional strike slip movement that is responsible for the creation of the sea of marmara and the north aegean basins the northern half of the sea of marmara is interpreted as a large pull apart basin this basin is subdivided into three smaller basins separated by strike slip fault segments of uplifted blocks ne sw basinal areas are covered by horizontally layered sedimentary sequences uplifted blocks have undergone compressional stress all the blocks are subsiding and are undergoing vertical motions and rotations relative to one another the uplifted blocks exhibit positive bouguer gravity anomalies according to gravity interpretation there is relative crustal thinning under the sea of marmara the northern side of the sea of marmara is marked by a distinctive deep rooted magnetic anomaly which is dissected and shifted southward by strike slip faulting the southern shelf areas of the sea of marmara are dominated by short wavelength magnetic anomalies of shallow origin

submarine fault scarps in the sea of marmara pull apart north anatolian fault implications for seismic hazard in istanbul earthquake scarps associated with recent historical events have been found on the floor of the sea of marmara along the north anatolian fault naf the marmarascarps cruise using an unmanned submersible rov provides direct observations to study the fine scale morphology and geology of those scarps their distribution and geometry the observations are consistent with the diversity of fault mechanisms and the fault segmentation within the north marmara extensional step over between the strike slip ganos and izmit faults smaller strike slip segments and pull apart basins alternate within the main step over commonly combining strike slip and extension rapid sedimentation rates of 1 3 mm yr appear to compete with normal faulting components of up to 6 mm yr at the pull apart margins in spite of the fast sedimentation rates the submarine scarps are preserved and accumulate relief sets of youthful earthquake scarps extend offshore from the ganos and izmit faults on land into the sea of marmara our observations suggest that they correspond to the submarine ruptures of the 1999 izmit mw 7 4 and the 1912 ganos ms 7 4 earthquakes while the 1999 rupture ends at the immediate eastern entrance of the extensional cinarcik basin the 1912 rupture appears to have crossed the ganos restraining bend into the sea of marmara floor for 60 km with a right lateral slip of 5 m ending in the central basin step over from the gulf of saros to marmara the total 1912 rupture length is probably about 140 km not 50 km as previously thought the direct observations of submarine scarps in marmara are critical to defining barriers that have arrested past earthquakes as well as defining a possible segmentation of the contemporary state of loading incorporating the submarine scarp evidence modifies substantially our understanding of the current state of loading along the naf next to istanbul coulomb stress modeling shows a zone of maximum loading with at least 4 5 m of slip deficit encompassing the strike slip segment 70 km long between the cinarcik and central basins that segment alone would be capable of generating a large magnitude earthquake mw 7 2 other segments in marmara appear less loaded

high resolution seismic profiling in the sea of marmara northwest turkey late quaternary sedimentation and sea level changes high resolution sparker seismic profiling was carried out in the sea of marmara northwest turkey to study the late quaternary tectonics and sedimentation of this important active basin at the western end of the north anatolian fault zone a sedimentary unit interpreted as the clinoforms of a prograding delta was observed in places along the outer part of the southern shelf the topset foreset transitions of the latest clinoforms cluster around 100 m below present sea level they were probably deposited during the last glacial maximum and early phase of deglaciation between 25 and 13 k y b p when the level of the aegean was below that of the dardanelles sill 60 70 m below sea level at present therefore the sea of marmara was isolated from the aegean during the last glacial maximum but it is possible that a fluvial overflow existed across the dardanelles during this time stabilizing the level of the marmara lake and allowing the delta progradation rivers that drain into the sea of marmara from the south have a much greater combined drainage basin area and sediment flux than those draining the region to the north this may explain the much broader shelf to the south half graben bounded by north dipping normal faults observed within the southern shelf would tend to trap sediment sourced from the south and subdue any sea bed morphology on the shelf

eddy shedding and energy conversions in the east australian current 1 mesoscale variability and eddy shedding in the tasman sea particularly of the east australian current eac is studied through the analysis of remotely sensed observations and outputs from a global ocean model previous observations of the western boundary current separation from the coast showed strong variability at periods ranging between 90 and 140 days we show from satellite altimetric observations that rapid northward migration of the separation point of the eac follows the formation of large eddies at periods of 100 days after an eddy separation event the normally southward flowing current swiftly assumes a more zonal configuration near the separation latitude with a cyclonic circulation developing inshore the formation of large separation eddies is preceded by the southward propagation of sea level anomalies along the east australian continental slope from 25 s sea level anomalies grow as they travel south eventually being pinched off in the form of large anticyclones at 32 s in the current retroflection area energy conversion terms in a global ocean model and in altimetric data suggest both barotropic and baroclinic instability may account for the growth of these anomalies as they propagate south east of the main eac jet there is evidence that eddies may be feeding potential energy back to the mean flow

recalculated probability of m 7 earthquakes beneath the sea of marmara turkey 1 new earthquake probability calculations are made for the sea of marmara region and the city of istanbul providing a revised forecast and an evaluation of time dependent interaction techniques calculations incorporate newly obtained bathymetric images of the north anatolian fault beneath the sea of marmara le pichon et al 2001 armijo et al 2002 newly interpreted fault segmentation enables an improved regional a d 1500 2000 earthquake catalog and interevent model which form the basis for time dependent probability estimates calculations presented here also employ detailed models of coseismic and postseismic slip associated with the 17 august 1999 m 7 4 izmit earthquake to investigate effects of stress transfer on seismic hazard probability changes caused by the 1999 shock depend on marmara sea fault stressing rates which are calculated with a new finite element model the combined 2004 2034 regional poisson probability of m 7 earthquakes is 38 the regional time dependent probability is 44 18 and incorporation of stress transfer raises it to 53 18 the most important effect of adding time dependence and stress transfer to the calculations is an increase in the 30 year probability of a m 7 earthquake affecting istanbul the 30 year poisson probability at istanbul is 21 and the addition of time dependence and stress transfer raises it to 41 14 the ranges given on probability values are sensitivities of the calculations to input parameters determined by monte carlo analysis 1000 calculations are made using parameters drawn at random from distributions sensitivities are large relative to mean probability values and enhancements caused by stress transfer reflecting a poor understanding of large earthquake aperiodicity index terms 7223 seismology seismic hazard assessment and prediction 7230 seismology seismicity and seismotectonics 8150 tectonophysics plate boundary general 3040 keywords earthquake probability sea of marmara seismic hazard turkey stress interaction north anatolian fault

the north anatolian fault a new look dedicated to the memory of three pioneers ihsan ketin sirri erinc and melih tokay and a recent student aykut barka who burnt himself out in pursuit of the mysteries of the north anatolian fault abstract the north anatolian fault naf is a 1200 km long dextral strike slip fault zone that formed by progressive strain localization in a generally westerly widening right lateral keirogen in northern turkey mostly along an interface juxtaposing subduction accretion material to its south and older and stiffer continental basements to its north the naf formed approximately 13 to 11 ma ago in the east and propagated westward it reached the sea of marmara no earlier than 200 ka ago although shear related deformation in a broad zone there had already commenced in the late miocene the fault zone has a very distinct morphological expression and is seismically active since the seventeenth century it has shown cyclical seismic behavior with century long cycles beginning in the east and progressing westwa

the north anatolian fault within the sea of marmara a new interpretation based on multi channel seismic and multi beam bathymetry data abstract we analyze 2200 km of multi channel seismic reflection profiles that have become recently available in the sea of marmara this analysis benefits from the recent acquisition of multi beam bathymetric data covering the axial portion of the northern basins we conclude that the northern sea of marmara is at present cut by an active continuous strike slip fault system that we call the marmara fault it links the 270 izmit portion of the northern branch of the north anatolian fault to the east of the sea to the 245 ganos fault to the west the marmara fault itself consists of two main parts the western one is a single 80 km long fault it follows a 265 direction that differs by 20 from the direction of the ganos fault at its northeastern extremity it turns toward the northern margin of the cinarcik basin this western part of the fault is seismically quite active the eastern part is more complex it extends over 65 km in a 280 direction there is thus a 10 clockwise rotation with respect to the 270 izmit fault strand that should result in a slight extensional component within the eastern cinarcik basin this part of the marmara fault has two parallel branches 10 km apart the northern one near the foot of the northern slope the southern one near the foot of the southern slope a shortening zone occupies the northwestern corner of the cinarcik basin and much of the adjacent eastern central high and separates the northern branch from the western one the southern branch on the other hand may cross the eastern central high along a narrow 280 valley the data we have provide no definitive evidence on which of these two branches carries most of the motion the establishment of the present trace of the fault through the marmara basin is contemporaneous with a recent phase of deposition of deep giant ripples parallel to the bathymetric slope contours and adjacent to the turbidites basin deposits the base of these deep basins sedimentary deposits is marked by a widespread erosional unconformity below which lies a gently folded sedimentary sequence that may consist of shallow thrace basin deposits

westward propagation of the north anatolian fault into the northern aegean timing and kinematics we present new evidence for the propagation processes of the north anatolian fault folding in the dardanelles straits region allows us to document the timing of the deformation preceding and the finite displacement after the passage of the propagating tip of the fault the accuracy of the observations is due to interplay between deformation and the sea level changes in the mediterranean the well known messinian regression followed by the pliocene transgression the long term kinematics around the sea of marmara pull apart total displacement of about 85 km over the past 5 m y is similar to the present day kinematics deduced from space geodesy at a larger scale westward propagation of the north anatolian fault over nearly 2000 km in the past 10 m y appears to be associated with strain recovery suggesting that the continental lithosphere retains long term elasticity

origin of a cretaceous low 18o granitoid complex in the active continental margin of se china abstract low 18o felsic igneous rocks with 18o values of 1 low sr y 7 23 49 5 and la yb ratios 6 87 46 0 and relatively low zr saturation temperatures 730 c in addition the diorites and granodiorites contain a variety of inherited high ca plagioclase an 60 87 we demonstrate that the xiaocuo granitoid rocks were derived from preexisting subduction related metabasic source rocks their low 18ozrc values 3 8 5 2 are reflective of their source compositions the formation of the low 18o source rocks is most likely formed in a subduction induced lithospheric extension regime during early jurassic to early cretaceous time when a basin and range like province developed in se china intensive lithospheric extension could have increased the fracture permeability and facilitated deep circulated surface waters for exchanging with the source rocks at high temperature at depth making the metabasic source rocks depleted in 18o remelting of the 18o depleted metabasic intrusive source rocks produced the xiaocuo low 18o granitoid complex at 116 ma our work indicates that in addition to the caldera and rift settings extensional active continental margin could also be a favorable setting for the formation of low 18o granitoid rocks

the circulation and hydrography of the marmara sea abstract a comprehensive set of data collected during 1986 1992 reveal seasonal and interannual variability in the circulation and hydrography of the marmara sea waters which have contrasting properties and originate from the adjacent basins supply the two layer stratified flows in the sea of marmara turbulent entrainment into the upper layer in the exit region of the bosphorus jet and wind stirring in winter both contribute equally to the basin vertical mixing the upper layer circulation of the marmara sea is determined from adcp measurements and from dynamical calculations based on hydrographic data the mean upper layer circulation is anti cyclonic mainly driven by the southward flowing bosphorus jet in the enclosed domain the bosphorus inflow is well defined except during the periods of low discharge in autumn and winter when the jet becomes weaker and tends to become attached to the west coast near the exit mediterranean water entering from the dardanelles supply the suhalocline layer the negatively buoyant plume of well oxygenated water is the only means of renewal of the deep waters partially compensating for the oxygen consumed by the degradation of organic matter sinking from the upper layer into the lower layer yet the subhalocline waters remain permanently deficient in oxygen as a result of the internal balances of diffusion advection and consumption the depth to which the plume penetrates is a function of the seasonal characteristics of the inflow density modified in the strait and the weak interior stratification

asymmetric slip partitioning in the sea of marmara pull apart a clue to propagation processes of the north anatolian fault between 1939 and 1999 the north anatolian fault naf experienced a westward progression of eight large earthquakes over 800 km of its morphological trace the 2000 km long north anatolian transform fault has also grown by westward propagation through continental lithosphere over a much longer timescale 10 myr the sea of marmara is a large pull apart that appears to have been a geometrical mechanical obstacle encountered by the naf during its propagation the present paper focuses on new high resolution data on the submarine fault system that forms a smaller pull apart beneath the northern sea of marmara between two well known strike slip faults on land izmit and ganos faults the outstandingly clear submarine morphology reveals a segmented fault system including pull apart features at a range of scales which indicate a dominant transtensional tectonic regime there is no evidence for a single continuous purely strike slip fault this result is critical to understanding of the seismic behaviour of this region of the naf close to istanbul additionally morphological and geological evidence is found for a stable kinematics consistent both with the long term displacement field determined for the past 5 myr and with present day anatolia eurasia motion determined with gps however within the sea of marmara region the fault kinematics involves asymmetric slip partitioning that appears to have extended throughout the evolution of the pull apart the loading associated with the westward propagation process of the naf may have provided a favourable initial geometry for such a slip separation

late holocene slip rate for the north anatolian fault turkey from cosmogenic 36cl geochronology implications for the constancy of fault loading and strain release rates geomorphologic mapping and cosmogenic radionuclide 36cl dating of an offset fluvial terrace yield a preferred late holocene slip rate of 20 5 5 5 mm yr for the central part of the north anatolian fault turkey an independent slip rate constrained by 14c ages is 20 5 8 5 mm yr these rates are generally similar to but possibly slightly slower than the short term rate of elastic strain storage of 25 1 measured geodetically across this major strike slip fault reilinger et al 2006 1 suggesting that loading and strain release on this part of the north anatolian fault have been relatively constant when averaged over the past 2 2 5 k y we attribute this consistency to the relatively simple structure of the anatolia eurasia plate boundary in north central turkey where almost all plate boundary strain is accommodated along the north anatolian fault the absence of other moderate to high slip rate faults and the earthquakes they produce leads to a relatively simple stress evolution for the fault dominated by steady tectonic loading 1 ref 10

strain localization in the sea of marmara propagation of the north anatolian fault in a now inactive pull apart 1 the sea of marmara is presently the site of pure dextral strike slip faulting that connects the izmit fault in the east to the ganos fault in the west along a linear strike slip fault that is part of the northwestern branch of the north anatolian fault this active main marmara fault mmf cuts across a succession of depocenters and highs analysis of a large data set that includes multichannel seismic lines sparker and deep towed high definition seismics shows that most of the n120 e trending normal faults framing these depocenters are now inactive as they are sealed by an average thickness of 300 m of sediments the highs correspond to a series of ne sw trending anticlines and reverse faults blanketed by a thin cover of undeformed sediments we interpret these structures as inverted former transfer faults of the now inactive sea of marmara pull apart system depocenters and highs are the relicts of a former pull apart basins and transfer faults system that accommodated the north anatolian fault motion within the sea of marmara prior to the formation of the mmf we propose that a relatively short a few hundreds of thousands of years period of basin inversion accompanied the localization of strain along the present main marmara fault until it was fully formed 200 100 kyr ago the preexisting pull apart basin system accounts for about 30 km of motion along this fault system and thus probably appeared sometime in late pliocene or early pleistocene as a reactivated portion of the old thrace basin during the plio quaternary the sea of marmara has been the site of progressive localization of strain

seismicity of the sea of marmara turkey since 1500 summary we use the earthquake history of the last 500 years to help evaluate the tectonic and hazard contexts of the1999 earthquakes at izmit and dzce in westernturkey the 20th century has been unusually active but over the 500 year period the seismic moment release can account for the known right lateral shear velocity across the marmara region observed by gps two areas of known late quaternary faulting stand out as unusually quiet over this period the northwest shore of the sea of marmara and the southern branch of the north anatolian fault system between bursa and mudurnu

oscillating quaternary water levels of the marmara sea and vigorous outflow into the aegean sea from the marmara sea black sea drainage corridor abstract detailed interpretation of single channel air gun and deep tow boomer profiles demonstrates that the marmara sea turkey experienced small amplitude 70 m fluctuations in sea level during the later quaternary limited in magnitude by the sill depth of the strait of dardanelles moderate subsidence along the southern shelf and quaternary glacio eustatic sea level variations created several stacked deltaic successions separated by major shelf crossing unconformities which developed during the transitions from global glacial to interglacial periods near the strait of dardanelles a series of sand prone deposits are identified beneath an uppermost holocene transparent mud drape the sandy deposits thicken into mounds with the morphology and cross sectional geometries of barrier islands sand waves and current generated marine bars all cross stratification indicates unidirectional flow towards the dardanelles prior to the deposition of the transparent drape which began 7000 years bp in strong support of the notion that the marmara sea flowed westwards into the aegean sea through the dardanelles at times of deglaciation in northern europe the global sea level curve shows that at 11 000 and 9500 years bp sea level rose to the sill depths of the straits of dardanelles and bosphorus respectively the effect from 11 000 to 9500 years bp was seawater incursion into the marmara sea drowning and formation of algal serpulid bioherms atop lowstand barrier islands and transgression of shelves and lowstand deltas at 9500 years bp glacial meltwater temporarily stored in the black sea lake developed into a vigorous southward flow toward the aegean sea forming west directed sandy bedforms in the western marmara sea and initiating deposition of sapropel s1 in the aegean sea this strong outflow persisted until 7000 years bp after which a mud drape began to accumulate in the marmara sea and euryhaline mediterranean mollusks successfully migrated into a progressively more saline black sea where sapropel deposition began most eastern mediterranean sapropels from s1 to s11 appear to correlate with periods of rising sea level and breaching or near breaching of the bosphorus sill these events are believed to coincide with times of vigorous outflow of low salinity fresh surface waters transiting the black sea marmara sea corridor and ultimately derived from melting of northern european ice sheets

a first deep seismic survey in the sea of marmara deep basins and whole crust architecture and evolution abstract increased source strength streamer length and dense spatial coverage of seismic reflection profiles of the seismarmara leg 1 allow to image the deep structure of the marine north marmara trough nmt on the strike slip north anatolian fault naf west of the destructive izmit 1999 earthquake a reflective lower crust and the moho boundary are detected they appear upwarped on an e w profile from the southern central basin eastwards towards more internal parts of the deformed region thinning of the upper crust could use a detachment suggested from an imaged dipping intracrustal reflector that would allow upper crustal material to be dragged from beneath it and above the lower crust accounting for the extensional component but also southwest motion of the southern margin of the nmt sections across the eastern half of the nmt crossing the cinarcik and imrali basins reveal several faults that are active reaching into the basement and have varying strike and proportions of normal and strike slip displacement they might be viewed as petals of a large scale negative flower structure that spreads over a width of 30 km at surface and is rooted deeper in the lithosphere under the central basin a very thick sediment infill is revealed and its extensional bounding faults are active and imaged as much as 8 km apart down to 6 km depth we interpret them as two deep rooted faults encompassing a foundering basement block rather than being merely pulled apart from a jog in a strike slip above a decollement the deep basin lengthening would account for only a modest part of the proposed 60 km finite motion since 4 myr along the same direction oblique to the nmt that sidesteps the shear motion from its two ends thus differential motion occurred much beyond the deep basins like subsidence involving the nmt bounding faults and the intracrustal detachments the complex partitioned motion localized on active faults with diverse natures and orientations is suggested to represent the overburden deformation induced from horizontal plane simple shear occurring in depth at lithospheric scale and in front of the north anatolian fault when it propagated through the region

north anatolian fault in the gulf of izmit turkey rapid vertical motion in response to minor bends of a nonvertical continental transform 1 the catastrophic rupture of the north anatolian fault east of the marmara sea on 17 august 1999 highlighted a need for mapping the underwater extension of that continental transform a new bathymetric map of izmit gulf indicates that the fault follows the axis of the gulf with a few minor bends submerged shorelines and shelf breaks that formed during the last glacial maximum provide markers to quantify vertical deformation variable tilting of these horizons reveals that vertical deformation is highest just south of the fault a correlation between vertical deformation of the southern fault block and distance to fault bends can be accounted for by a fault dipping steeply to the south hence subsidence uplift of the southern hanging wall block would be expected where the fault strikes at a slightly transtensional transpressional orientation to relative plate motion subsidence reaches about 8 mm yr west of the town of golcuk and might be accommodated in 1 2 m subsidence events during large earthquakes that scenario is compatible with the tsunami runups and the coseismic subsidence of the southern shore that occurred in 1999 seafloor morphology also suggests that earthquakes are accompanied by widespread gas and fluid release the periphery of the deepest basin displays a hummocky texture diagnostic of sediment fluidization and mud volcanoes occur west of hersek peninsula that might be activated by earthquakes finally the backscatter imagery reveals a series of lineaments midway through the gulf that are interpreted as products of the 1999 surface rupture the seafloor is undisturbed farther west suggesting that surface slip decreased to an insignificant level beyond hersek possibly the stress shadow from the 10 july 1894 earthquake which was felt strongly along the western izmit gulf contributed to arrest the 1999 surface rupture

late quaternary co seismic sedimentation in the sea of marmara s deep basins the deep northern part of the sea of marmara northwestern turkey is composed of several aligned actively subsiding basins which are the direct structural and morphological expression of the north anatolian fault s northern branch the last 20 kyr of their sedimentary fill lacustrine before 12 kyr bp have been investigated through giant piston coring onboard r v marion dufresne marmacore cruise 2001 and chirp subbottom profiler onboard r v atalante during marmarascarps cruise 2002 especially during the lacustrine stage the infilling of the deep basins tekirda central kumburgaz and cinarcic basins up to 1250 m depth was dominated by turbidites with coarse mixed siliciclastic and bioclastic basal part intercalated in hemipelagic type finegrained calcareous and slightly siliceous clays often especially in the thickest ones the turbidites show strong segregation and a sharp boundary between coarse part and suspendedload part in the central basin 8 m of a unique sedimentary event include a 5 to 8m thick homogenite well imaged on seismic profiles the latter is interpreted as related to a major possibly triggered tsunami effect as described in the eastern mediterranean by kastens and cita 1981 in the marine holocene upper part of the sedimentary fill repeated to and from structures affecting silt or fine sand are evidencing seiche like effects and thus earthquake triggering detailed correlations between two deep coring sites 1250 and 1200 m indicate more than 100 overthickening in the deepest one this implies specific processes of distribution of terrigenous input by dense hyperpycnal currents high kinetic energy seiche effect complex reflections on steep slopes the peculiar sedimentary infilling of the sea of marmara s central basin and by extrapolation of the whole set is tentatively interpreted as a direct consequence of the strong seismic activity the imprint of the latter is more obvious prior to the base of the holocene as environmental conditions favoured marginal accumulation especially on the southern shelf of large amounts of erosion products available for mass wasting

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

active faults and evolving strike slip basins in the marmara sea northwest turkey a multichannel seismic reflection study abstract the north anatolian fault is a 1200 km long transform fault forming the boundary between the anatolian and eurasian plates near its western end it strikes through the marmara sea and is responsible for the creation of three deep marine depressions the north anatolian fault system and the linked basins in the eastern marmara sea were studied using newly acquired multi channel seismic reflection data in the marmara sea the north anatolian fault consists of a main strand and a few subsidiary branches the main strand is made up of the ganos 15 km long central marmara 105 km and north boundary 45 km fault segments the north boundary fault joins in the east to the izmit segment which was ruptured during the m s 7 4 earthquake on 17 8 1999 the north boundary fault is highly oblique to the regional displacement vector which results in the generation of a symmetrical fault wedge basin this cinarcik basin is a wedge shaped deep marine depression south of istanbul it is about 50 km long up to 20 km wide and 1250 m deep and is filled with pliocene to quaternary sediments over 3 km thick the north boundary fault joins in the west to the transpressional central marmara fault around the restraining segment boundary the syntransform sediments are being deformed into a large anticlinorium the cinarcik basin started to form when the westward propagating north anatolian fault intersected a northwest trending pre existing fault zone during the pliocene and bifurcated into nw and sw trending segments forming a transform transform transform type triple junction dextral strike slip movement along the arms of the triple junction led to the development of the cinarcik basin the present fault geometry in the marmara region was achieved later during the mid pliocene following the termination of the triple junction geometry south of the main north anatolian fault system there is a second active strike slip fault in the marmara sea made up of several segments a highly asymmetrical fault bend basin comprising pliocene quaternary sediments over 2 5 km thick is forming along a releasing fault segment of this south boundary fault system

fault related fold growth and isostatic subsidence california channel islands in the northern channel islands of california preservation of paleo shoreline features both as uplifted landforms onshore and subsided depositional features offshore has allowed precise measurement of late quaternary fold growth relative to sea level and has helped to disentangle the relative contributions of tectonic forcing and isostatic response we precisely measured several hundred points on uplifted pleistocene coastal terraces of santa cruz and anacapa islands the elevations of which document anticlinal growth of the islands since at least 400 ka we also interpreted a dense grid of seismic reflection profiles that image a complex of eustatic lowstand deltas that record regional subsidence surrounding the uplifting structure we combined onshore uplift with offshore subsidence measurements to produce a quantitative mass balance of structural growth since 400 ka the data outlined above were then used to test the hypothesis that subsidence around the northern channel islands represents the flexural isostatic response to tectonic loading of the islands calculations of cumulative uplifted mass and cumulative subsided mass across the structure closely match the values predicted for density driven isostatic compensation and local flexural support although the wavelength of flexure predicted for the study area suggests that an additional component of flexural support may extend distally 10s of kilometers into the surrounding offshore basins in the northern channel islands isostatic subsidence is explicitly manifested because erosional mass removal is small because the crust here is relatively thin and weak and most importantly because sea level provides an absolute datum against which to measure vertical deformation an explicit treatment of the interplay between crustal thickening erosional denudation surface uplift and isostatic response helps to illustrate the conditions under which isostatic subsidence may or may not be a significant process where surface denudation rates approach the rate of rock uplift for example isostatic subsidence will approach zero in contrast failure to recognize isostatic subsidence in earthquake hazard studies can lead to order of magnitude errors in slip rate and hazard estimates

the 17 august 1999 izmit earthquake on 17 august 1999 an earthquake of magnitude 7 4 shook northwestern turkey details on the earthquake9s characteristics and effects across northwestern turkey are provided and are put in the historical context of previous earthquakes in the region the earthquake was the seventh in a series of earthquakes migrating westwards along the north anatolian fault since 1939 information on historical earthquakes modeling and estimates of the slip rate along the fault indicate that the location and severity of the earthquake should not have come as a surprise

strike slip fault geometry in turkey and its influence on earthquake activity the geometry of turkish strike slip faults has been reviewed and described from this data set it appears that fault geometry the distribution of discontinuities such as bends and stepovers along the main fault trace plays an important role in controlling the location of large earthquake rupture segments along the fault zones large earthquake ruptures generally do not propagate past individual stepovers that are wider than 5 km or bends that have angles greater than about 30 more important than the size of each discontinuity however is the total geometric pattern i e the distribution of adjacent bends and stepovers based not only on distance from one another but also on relative discontinuity size certain geometric patterns restraining single or double bends are particularly common and can be viewed as responsible for strain accumulation along portions of the fault zone fault geometry not only plays a role in the extent of earthquake rupture but also in characteristics of earthquake behavior for example large earthquake epicenters often occur near restraining bends or double bends furthermore aftershocks and swarm activity can often be associated with releasing areas areas along the strike slip fault that are undergoing a relatively large amount of extension

estimates of seismic potential in the marmara sea region from block models of secular deformation constrained by global positioning system measurements we model the geodetically observed secular velocity field in north western turkey with a block model that accounts for recoverable elastic strain ac cumulation the block model allows us to estimate internally consistent fault slip rates and locking depths the northern strand of the north anatolian fault zone nafz carries approximately four times as much right lateral motion 24 mm yr as does the southern strand in the marmara sea region the data show strain accu mulation to be highly localized we find that a straight fault geometry with a shallow locking depth of 6 7 km fits the observed global positioning system velocities better than does a stepped fault geometry that follows the northern and eastern edges of the sea this shallow locking depth suggests that the moment release associated with an earthquake on these faults should be smaller by a factor of 2 3 than previously inferred assuming a locking depth of 15 km online material an updated version of velocity field data

heightened odds of large earthquakes near istanbul an interaction based probability calculation we calculate the probability of strong shaking in istanbul an urban center of 10 million people from the description of earthquakes on the north anatolian fault system in the marmara sea during the past 500 years and test the resulting catalog against the frequency of damage in istanbul during the preceding millennium departing from current practice we include the time dependent effect of stress transferred by the 1999 moment magnitude m 7 4 izmit earthquake to faults nearer to istanbul we find a 62 15 probability one standard deviation of strong shaking during the next 30 years and 32 12 during the next decade

interaction between faulting and sedimentation in the sea of marmara western turkey 1 the aegean region is one of the most rapidly deforming continental areas in the world in the sea of marmara interaction between strike slip and extensional faulting has led to a complicated style of local deformation to the east the continental plate containing eastern and central turkey is moving westward with respect to eurasia with little internal deformation tectonic deformation is restricted to a narrow zone along the dominantly strike slip north anatolian fault however in the vicinity of the sea of marmara both surface mapping of faults and earthquake fault plane solutions indicate that extensional motions presumably related to back arc extension behind the hellenic subduction zone create a much wider zone of deformation which reaches hundreds of kilometers in width we use a regional grid of high resolution seismic reflection profiles to map the fault systems as they cross the sea of marmara and show how they divide the sea of marmara into separate deep basins with distinctive sediment sources and depositional styles in the southern sea of marmara these basins are half graben formed on north dipping fault planes which have trapped sediment coming into the sea of marmara from the south no evidence is found in the data set for the existence of a single strike slip fault through the sea of marmara or for the existence of a northern boundary fault along the tekirdag and central marmara basins we conclude that a single strike slip fault would be incapable of accommodating the relative motion and extension observed between western turkey and eurasia