on late miocene to recent vertical motions in the cretan segment of the hellenic arc abstract high resolution foraminiferal and calcareous nannoplankton biostratigraphy and reliable paleobathymetry estimates based on plankton benthos ratios in foraminifera make it possible to reconstruct in detail late neogene vertical motions along the central cretan segment of the hellenic arc these motions are considered to express the surficial effect of the roll back process of the hellenic subduction zone which started about 12 ma ago in contrast to earlier views there is no sustained uplift since the late middle miocene successive paleotopographic profiles for central crete show a predominance of subsidence coupled with an increase of differential reliefs from the latest serravallian until the messinian subsidence was most pronounced between the tortonian messinian boundary interval and the early part of the early pliocene locally up to a magnitude of more than 1000 m a two phased uplift history coupled with tilting to the north or northeast can be inferred from the late early pliocene recent record separated by a short early late pliocene episode of subsidence rates of uplift were highest in the early pliocene up to about 125 cm ka the central cretan late neogene to recent paleotopographic profiles are compared with those reconstructed from seismic interpretations and drilling data from the cretan sea the combined results show that paleotopographic configurations between the cyclades and crete were fairly similar to those on central crete until messinian time foundering of the cretan basin started in the course of the early pliocene but subsidence rates were less than the contemporaneous uplift rates of crete the timing and magnitude of the vertical motions along the cretan sea central cretan transect put detailed geological constraints on tectonophysical modelling of the surficial effects of the roll back process these vertical motions are discussed in view of the model of southward translation of a large supracrustal slab resulting in the origin of the cretan sea and in thrusting and uplift in the frontal parts of the slab where it thrusted over the northern limb of the subducted ionian plate

on the hellenic subduction zone and the geodynamic evolution of crete since the late middle miocene abstract in recent syntheses of the geodynamic evolution of the aegean area the hellenic subduction zone and in particular its initiation plays a central role two basic aspects of the recent comprehensive model put forward by le pichon angelier and co workers are a initiation of subduction along the hellenic arc is inferred to have taken place approximately 13 ma ago whereas several others have suggested approximately 5 ma and b migration of the trench system to the south southwest giving rise to an extensional regime in the back arc region which led to general subsidence and formation of the present day aegean sea new data on the structure of the upper mantle underneath the aegean area indicate that the former aspect requires modification the seismic velocity structure indicating a northward dipping slab down to a depth of at least 600 km and the depth distribution of earthquake hypocenters can not be reconciled with straightforward initiation of subduction approximately 13 ma ago estimates of about 5 ma for the time of initiation of the present subduction zone are even more difficult to reconcile assuming 400 km as an upper bound for the effect of stretching of the aegean sea and of other processes contributing to the separation of crete from the eurasian mainland we arrive at an age for the hellenic subduction zone of at least 26 ma as to aspect b geological data of crete lend strong support to the idea that on crete compressional tectonics is of much greater importance than current models imply combining geophysical and geological data we propose a modification of the tectonic evolution for the cretan segment of the hellenic arc whereas the basic process of extension caused by a migrating trench system roll back in a land locked basin remains a very useful and sound concept the tectonics of the margins of a region subject to stretching in this case crete may be more complicated than hitherto thought in our model the documented fragmentation of crete into several basins which started about 12 ma ago is not attributed to initiation of subduction but to inception of the roll back process compressional tectonics on crete is taken to be associated with deformation of the crust resulting from the overall tensional stress regime

seismotectonics of western anatolia regional stress orientation from geophysical and geological data abstract available fault plane solutions of shallow earthquakes occurring in the central part of western anatolia were reviewed in order to determine the stress directions active in this region data on 66 shocks were used for numerical analysis with the p and t dihedra method some of these data being used in further determination of stress tensors through numerical methods despite uncertainties on depth determinations results were found consistent and in agreement with those of geological analyses independently carried out on recent and active faults selections from the data were adopted on the basis of areal distribution magnitude and depth of earthquakes variations in stress axes orientation with depth seem significant and related to increasing influence of crustal anisotropy near the surface the dominant trend of the present day extension in this region as indicated by the analysis of available earthquake mechanisms is nne ssw with a corresponding azimuth of the 3 axis n25 e the stress regime is extensional with dominant normal fault motions and increasing importance of strike slip faults from south to north this pattern of stress in western turkey is consistent with kinematic reconstructions indicating a westward and southwestward motion of anatolia and aegea relative to eurasia

kinetics of water adsorption on minerals and the breathing of the martian regolith 1 several observations of the total amount of water vapor in mars atmosphere display diurnal variations a possible explanation is an atmosphere surface coupling that occurs through h 2 o exchange with the regolith where adsorbed water molecules have been proposed as a consequent water reservoir in order to test this hypothesis experimental laboratory measurements of adsorption isotherms are needed together with adsorption kinetics measurements following our previous measurements of the adsorption isotherms of a series of mars surface analog materials we report here on kinetics measurements on the same samples at a temperature of 243 k volcanic tuff dunite ferrihydrite smectite jsc marsl we observed that even for thin samples 1 mm diffusion through the sample might influence the adsorption process and significant caution is required to infer kinetics parameters of strongly adsorbing samples the kinetics parameters k d and dk a dp were extracted following the langmuir theory results show that adsorption is fast but not instantaneous with regard to the diurnal time scale k d 10 2 10 3 s 1 dk a dp 10 3 10 4 pa 1 s 1 large variations are found between the different samples which suggest a possible geological control on the amount of exchangeable water between the regolith and the atmosphere we estimate the impact of a noninstantaneous kinetics on the diurnal water vapor cycle by calculating the maximum amount of exchangeable water we found that a significant amount of h 2 o can be trapped within the regolith even in weakly adsorbing analog materials the similarity in adsorption properties between the jsc marsl and ferrihydrite samples suggests that the adsorption properties of the latter are controlled by the presence of iron oxyhydroxide these materials have strong adsorption capacities and their presence on the martian surface might explain the observed spatial correlation between the average surface humidity and the abundance of surface dust

the 1971 may 12 burdur earthquake sequence sw turkey a synthesis of seismological and geological observations summary it is now widely accepted that the rapid extension observed in western turkey is mainly accommodated by large active normal faults which control the geomorphology the ne sw trending burdur acigol and baklan basins bounded by large faults form a system of half graben whose orientation is evident in both the topography and the tilting of neogene sediments adjacent to them we used long period p and sh waveforms to determine the source parameters of the two largest earthquakes of the 1971 may 12 sequence that occurred in the burdur region the main shock was followed by many aftershocks which were distributed in a broad zone elongated ne sw parallel to the long axes of the basins in the region documented surface breaks of the 1971 event suggest that the northwest dipping faults along the southern margin of the burdur basin are those which moved well exposed fault planes are found dominantly to the south of burdur lake the surface dips of these faults are greater than that of the nw dipping nodal plane obtained for the main shock combined seismological and geological observations suggest that these faults have listric geometries

analyses of fault mechanisms and expansion of southwestern anatolia since the late miocene abstract neotectonic field studies and detailed analyses of neogene and quaternary fault mechanisms in southwestern anatolia enable us to recognize a succession of compressional and extensional events and to characterize the direction of corresponding regional stresses the three most important compressive phases occurred during the miocene and a much smaller one near the plio quaternary boundary the last one or two interrupted a widespread extension of much greater duration and amplitude the whole tectonic evolution resembles that of the aegean the large extension by normal faulting is consistent with a minimum stress along a nne ssw average direction it appears that this direction was n s during the pliocene and changed to ne sw sometime during the quaternary this dominant nne ssw extension which began during late miocene or earliest pliocene was related to the development of the southwestern anatolian graben system

a numerical method for determining the state of stress using focal mechanisms of earthquake populations application to tibetan teleseisms and microseismicity of southern peru the numerical method described in this paper enables the study in terms of stress of the kinematics of seismic faults provided by focal mechanisms this method assumes a mean state of stress in the source region and is based on the simple mechanical model used for fault population analysis which supposes slip in the direction of the resolved shear stress acting on the fault plane the proposed algorithm first defines compressional and tensional zones resulting from superimposition of the compressional and tensional quadrants limited by the nodal planes this enables one to test the data homogeneity furthermore this restricts the space where the principal stress axes have to be searched then for each principal stress reference whose location is constrained by above confined zones the r value chosen equal to 2 1 3 1 is computed which fits the slip vector on each nodal plane this permits one to select a set of preferred seismic fault planes from a set of auxiliary planes finally a state of stress is computed from the preferred seismic fault plane set using the non linear simplex method already applied to fault populations this algorithm is constructed so as to avoid two major difficulties misleading estimation of the deviatoric stress tensor which may result from excessive emphasis by minimizing the residuals by a least squares method if some of the data are wrong and a lengthy prospection of the stress references over all the space of directions this calculation does not take into account possible changes of the strike and dip of the nodal planes however we use rotations of nodal planes in agreement with the first arrival data to test the compatibility of these data with the computed state of stress tibetan teleseisms and southern peruvian microseisms are analyzed and results are compared with kinematics of superficial recent and active faults measured in field in the same regions this suggests that major seismic events may give a good evaluation of the regional mean state of stress focal mechanisms of the small events are also modelled by a mean stress deviator but this differs significantly from the regional state of stress in southern peru deduced from quaternary faulting this may be due to imprecise location of the small events however some movements are strongly different from those predicted by the computed mean stress deviator this suggests that small fault kinematics surely depend on the regional state of stress but that local effects may control the small deformations

continental vs oceanic lithosphere beneath the eastern mediterranean sea implications from rayleigh wave dispersion measurements abstract tectonics of the eastern mediterranean are strongly influenced by subduction of oceanic lithosphere with slab pull as a prominent driving force the current distribution of remnants of oceanic lithosphere and the properties of african mantle lithosphere beneath the eastern mediterranean basin have been a matter of debate previous studies variously found continental as well as oceanic lithosphere in this region a set of 1 d s wave velocity models is determined in order to characterize the mantle lithosphere in the area between crete and the middle east for seven paths starting from cyprus and running to crete to anatolia as well as to the middle east broad band average phase velocity curves of the fundamental rayleigh mode are obtained in the frequency range of about 3 mhz to 90 mhz by a two station method in addition an east west oriented path crossing southern anatolia and a path running parallel to the dead sea fault zone are considered phase velocity curves are inverted for path average 1 d s wave velocity models resolution is investigated with the neighbourhood algorithm comparing the resulting 1 d models cold oceanic mantle lithosphere showing s wave velocities above 4 6 km s 1 can be distinguished from mantle lithosphere with low s wave velocities oceanic lithosphere is found west of cyprus beneath the herodotus basin as indicated by benioff zones it is subducting towards northwest in the southeastern aegean and towards northeast beneath southwestern anatolia to the east of cyprus the mantle lithosphere beneath the easternmost mediterranean sea shows low s wave velocities no indications for cold oceanic mantle lithosphere are found beneath the levant basin in the region of the dead sea fault zone and the levant basin the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary is located at shallow depths of about 60 km to 80 km the dsfz is situated in a region of thinned lithosphere underlain by an asthenosphere with anomalous low s wave velocities low s wave velocities beneath southern anatolia extend down to at least 150 km depth as expected for a back arc setting inferred moho depths vary for the different paths between 28 km and 41 km

multiple rifting pulses and sedimentation pattern in the cameli basin southwestern anatolia turkey abstract the neotectonic development of western anatolia was characterized by the formation of numerous graben type basins which have been well documented by general mapping although the cause and timing of the neogene regional tectonic extension remain controversial previous interpretations of the origin and evolution of these neogene basins were based mainly on regional scale tectonic inferences rather than detailed basin fill analysis the present study of the terrestrial intramontane cameli basin in the western taurides combines detailed facies analysis with biostratigraphic dating mammalian and molluscan fossils and documents three pulses of crustal extension that are reflected in changes in the palaeogeography and sedimentary architecture of the basin development of the cameli graben commenced in the vallesian time early tortonian and is marked by alluvial fan fluvial and lacustrine depositional systems with freshwater molluscan fauna a second pulse of tectonic extension occurred in the late ruscinian time early middle pliocene producing a new normal fault that split the basin longitudinally into two compartments the lake environment expanded and deepened coastal peat forming mires developed and abundant mammal fauna appeared by the early villanian time middle pliocene with the lacustrine deposits onlapping the basin margin and intrabasinal fault escarpments the lacustrine environment subsequently shrank as the progradation of axial river deltas and basin margin fan deltas caused water shallowing and shoreline regression a third pulse of extension occurred at the end of villanian time late pliocene when the development of a new generation of normal faults further split the basin into still narrower half graben compartments the third pulse of rifting is estimated to have accounted for little more than 10 of the sub basinal crustal extension but caused the most striking changes in the basin palaeogeography and drainage pattern the inward development of the successive normal faults indicated a high rate crustal extension this is the first regional case study of a terrestrial neotectonic graben employing detailed sedimentary facies analysis and mammal biostratigraphy and providing a time stratigraphic framework for the rifting pulses in western anatolia

the east anatolian fault an oblique collisional belt abstract the tectonic setting for the area around the arabia africa anatolia triple junction is described from combined landsat spot satellite image analysis and field observations since the late miocene the motion along the east anatolian fault generated major structures corresponding to shortening with a sinistral slip component the 150 km wide area of the triple junction is highly deformed by folding and thrusting distributed mainly on the border of the anatolian block in addition kinematic reconstructions confirm that the arabia anatolia relative motion is both sinistral and convergent the sinistral strike slip faults of the east anatolian fault zone are of second order and local consequences of the n s arabia anatolia collision

slab detachment beneath eastern anatolia a possible cause for the formation of the north anatolian fault in this paper we discuss the possibility that the north anatolian fault naf results from the deep deformation of the slab beneath the bitlis hellenic subduction zone we described the tectonic evolution of the anatolia aegean area in three main steps before during and after the formation of the naf we remark that the tectonic conditions that are assumed to have triggered the formation of the naf i e collision to the east and extension to the west was already achieved before the onset of that strike slip fault system we also highlight that the formation of the naf was accompanied by the uplift of the turkish iranian plateau and by a surge of volcanism in the eastern anatolia collisional area and probably by the acceleration of the aegean trench retreat we show tomographic images from global p wave model of piromallo and morelli c piromallo a morelli p wave tomography of the mantle under the alpine mediterranean area j geophys res 108 2003 doi 10 1029 2002jb001757 showing that the slab beneath the bitlis collisional belt is not continuous and that its possible rupture pursues to the west at least up to cyprus and possibly up to the eastern end of the hellenic trench all these observations suggest that the plate tectonic re organization occurred in the late miocene early pliocene in the region results from slab break off in the bitlis area and from its lateral propagation to the west this idea is tested in analogue laboratory experiments which confirm that the break of the slab under the collisional belt may trigger 1 the acceleration of slab retreat to the west due to the increase in slab pull force 2 the indentation of the continent in the collisional area and 3 produce the conditions that permit the lateral escape of material towards the west and the formation of the naf

the florence rise the western bend of the cyprus arc the florence rise is a submarine feature extending from the island of cyprus in the southeast to the anaximander mountains which form the northwestern end of the cyprus arc south of western turkey the eastern florence rise includes a topographic high near cyprus while its central domain displays relatively low relief most of the major elements of relief appear to be bounded by faults in the light of new geophysical data an underlying core ridge likely made of pre pliocene nappes emplaced from the north separates relatively undeformed sediments to the northeast from actively shearing sediments and seismic basement to the southwest a dextral arc parallel wrench zone at least 15 km wide has created a lineated seafloor texture and accompanying flower structures within the central florence rise apparent riedel type conjugate shears within this system cut across the florence rise and mark changes in the relief along the arc several mud volcanoes are observed within the wrench zone and along associated faults indicating that overpressuring at depth is relieved by these faults there is no evidence for any typical subduction along this arcuate trend which is considered to act as the present boundary between the african and anatolian aegean plates in contrast both the nature of faulting and the morphology of the florence rise seem to indicate some degree of transpressional coupling between the two plates even though they appear disconnected by a tectonic boundary in the form of a major shear zone

extensional compressional tectonics associated with the aegean arc comparison with the andean cordillera of south peru north bolivia extensional compressional tectonics are analysed along the convergent boundaries of the aegean arc and of the andean cordillera of south peru and north bolivia this paper deals only with deformations of miocene pliocene and pleistocene ages the prevailing regime in the aegean basin is extensional yet two compressional tectonic phases of u miocene l pliocene and of l pleistocene age have been recorded they are also known in many places all around the mediterranean thus forces that induce compressional tectonics in the aegean seem to have their origin outside the region they seem to be linked with changes in the conditions of convergence change in rate between the arabo african and eurasian plates beneath the andean cordillera of south peru north bolivia the subduction zone plunges at an angle of 25 30 as it does under the aegean arc there as in the aegean sea tectonics are predominantly extensional and several short lived compressional phases break up this extensional regime the latter may also be induced by changes of the conditions of convergence here between the nazca and south american plates beneath central peru north of the nazca ridge the subduction zone plunges at a small angle about 10 there neotectonic deformations are different in the recent they are essentially compressional or expressed by strike slip faulting geological data from the aegean and andes seem to demonstrate that the compressional deformation in the crust above subduction zones is strongly controlled by the stress conditions along convergent boundaries

from palaeotectonics to neotectonics in the neotethys realm the importance of kinematic decoupling and inherited structural grain in sw anatolia turkey abstract in order to asses young i e neotectonic fault kinematics and the relation with plate tectonic processes in sw turkey we focused on the questions 1 what produced the structural grain i e how and when are faults generated 2 what was is the kinematic behaviour of these faults and 3 during which period s were these faults active firstly the distribution of faults has been investigated using a lineament analysis performed on satellite imagery and digital elevation models we define five main tectonic domains in sw turkey 1 and 2 the northern and southern western anatolian extensional provinces 3 the eastern hellenic arc including rhodes island and the submarine anaximander mountains 4 the lycian taurides and 5 the western limb of the isparta angle lineament analysis reveals dominance of three lineament groups i e nne ene and wnw trending in all identified domains variations in the relative importance of lineament groups exist and are attributed to the specific tectonic evolution of each domain a synthesis of recently published field data shows that the onset of activity of related fault groups is neither synchronous nor uniform the structural grain for the neotectonic deformation in sw turkey is formed during the last stage of palaeotectonic deformation stage 1 which is dominated by the onset of the menderes massif exhumation along a top n major detachment the datca break away fault seyitoglu g isik v and cemen i 2004 complete tertiary exhumation history of the menderes massif western turkey an alternative working hypothesis terra nova 16 358 364 and related se ward sliding of the lycian nappes in the footwall of this fault this stage is characterized by spatially variable types of deformation that are delineated by from nw to se the datca fault around the menderes lycian contact zone and the lycian frontal thrust zone respectively the kinematic decoupling along these structures explains the co existence of top n detachment type extension in the western anatolian extensional province and ongoing nappe emplacement and piggy back development in the lycian taurides the decoupling also explains the lateral complexity of deformation associated with later neotectonic deformation from late miocene onward stage 2 nne ssw extension dominated the western anatolian extensional province influenced by combined anatolian extrusion and hellenic subduction roll back contemporaneously bidirectional ese wnw and nne ssw extension controls the lycian taurides due to the effects of hellenic arc expansion superposed on extrusion roll back extension the zone of kinematic decoupling is characterized by structural complexity with local transpressional features during stage 3 post late pliocene the same types of extension prevail in the western anatolian extensional province and the lycian taurides although a third tectonic regime becomes gradually more important this regime is associated with a tectonic escape in the hellenic arc that induced forearc slivers to be sheared of the expanding arc along mostly sinistrally displacing ene trending strike slip zones several of these zones have been identified in the coastal zones of sw turkey either through recent seismicity or field observations and are especially focused in the lycian taurides domain here they form what is classically referred to as the fethiye burdur fault zone which becomes gradually penetrated from the sw by oblique or strike slip zones exemplifying the time transgressive nature of the tectonic escape mechanism zones of kinematic decoupling remain persistent throughout the entire early miocene recent tectonic evolution of sw turkey and explain the existence of differently deforming tectonic domains

paleomagnetic reconstruction of the cenozoic evolution of the eastern mediterranean abstract a total of 113 paleomagnetic sites were sampled along an anatolian s n transect from the arabian platform the hatay region the eastern taurides the kirsehir block the sivas basin and the eastern pontides reliable characteristic remanent paleomagnetic directions were retrieved from 37 of these sites spanning in time from paleocene to miocene in a general way declinations are westerly deviated and inclinations are shallower than the geocentered dipole value at the present latitudes when combined with previously published results these data indicate that a large scale counterclockwise rotation of anatolia of some 25 has occurred since the miocene assuming that the pole of rotation of anatolia with respect to europe has remained constant in time at the location given by macclusky et al j geophys res 105 2000 5695 on the basis of the geodetic data this rotation implies that a large westward displacement 500 km at the average latitude of 40 has taken place assuming that the rotation was initiated by the arabia europe collision about 12 ma ago this corresponds to an average displacement of about 40 mm year together with previous results from the western part of the aegean arc these results indicate that the main trends of the cenozoic evolution of the eastern mediterranean appear to consist of two post early miocene rotations of opposite senses a clockwise rotation of the western part of the aegean tectonophysics 146 1988 183 around a pole situated in northern albania and a counterclockwise rotation around the pole given by mcclusky et al j geophys res 105 2000 5695 comparison with gps data suggest that both rotations are still active today

quaternary stress regime change in the hatay region se turkey in this study we determine the plio quaternary to present day stress regime acting in the hatay region located at the northeastern corner of the east mediterranean region the modern state of stress is obtained from inversion of focal mechanism solutions of shallow earthquakes this inversion identifies a dominantly extensional stress regime with a ne trending h m i n 3 axis at the present day the stress regime determined from inversion of slip vectors measured on fault planes confirms that this regime is extensional in the studied area both the kinematics and chronologies of fault slip vectors show that the stress state changed from an earlier strike slip regime to a younger extensional stress regime with a consistent ne trending h m i n 3 axis the change from strike slip to extensional stress regimes probably occurred during the quaternary regionally both stress regimes induce sinistral displacement on the east anatolian fault and dead sea fault systems the north anatolian fault naf is a dextral strike slip fault which runs about 1400 km from east to west and has been active since collision between the eurasian and arabian plates together with the sinistral east anatolian fault the naf intracontinental deformation zone contributes to the westward extrusion of anatolia as a consequence of northward drift of arabia consequently the late cenozoic stress regimes acting in the hatay region result from the coeval influence of forces due to 1 the subduction processes in the west and southwest 2 the continental collision in the east and 3 the westward escape of the anatolian block however the timing of the temporal stress transition suggests that the quaternary stress regime change resulted from subduction processes with the extensional stress regime in the hatay region being mainly attributable to roll back of the mediterranean subducted slab along the cyprus arc

pattern of normal faulting in the gediz graben sw turkey hanging wall deformation of the fault systems controlling the southern margin of the gediz graben were investigated separately within the plio quaternary and neogene predominantly miocene deposits of the graben fill fault styles observed in both packages share many similarities in terms of geometry and comprise conjugate fault sets that show clustering of strike orientations predominantly around wnw ese but also sw ne and nw se directions the main difference between the two units is observable in terms of fault dips and rake of the slickenside lineations measured on the exposed fault planes both measurements show a uni modal distribution for the plio quaternary deposits but a tri modal distribution for the neogene deposits this variation is probably related to the geometrical modification of the older faults by the process of domino style back rotation in the hanging wall of higher order faults similarities among the two units are not limited to geometrical aspects of the fault systems but also counts for the orientation of the principal stress axes that controlled the deformation during the deposition of each sedimentary package inversion of the fault slip data showed that approximately n s oriented extension which varies in the range of nnw sse and nne ssw controlled the faulting during the accumulation of the entire graben fill with almost no evidence of change in the state of stress during the graben evolution however some heterogeneity in terms of stress field is observable among the fault systems formed within the same time frame this heterogeneity is probably related to poorly defined direction of extension in the graben indeed low ratio in the order of 0 25 suggests that 2 and 3 are close in magnitudes and the direction of extension is not well constraint with a potential of 2 3 axes permutations local stress field anomalies related to fault segment interaction could also contribute to the observed heterogeneity

mjo modulation on 2009 10 winter snowstorms in the united states abstractduring the winter of 2009 10 a number of record breaking snowfall events registered in the eastern united states are shown to have been modulated by the pulsation of tropical mjo through an atmospheric teleconnection pattern the intraseasonal variability over the eastern subtropical pacific near mexico the equatorial central pacific had reached the maximum second largest strength since 1979 80 from late december to mid february the convection over these two regions experienced a remarkable wet dry wet cycle correspondingly the daily snowfall over the eastern united states also exhibited a wet dry wet cycle as the mjo convection reached the central pacific a teleconnection pattern extended to north america resulting in a westward tilted deep anomalous trough anchored over the eastern united states producing a low level pressure dipole anomaly with an anticyclone cyclone centered at the u s west east coast the convection over the indian ocean varied in phase with the central paci

a pulsed extension model for the neogene recent e w trending alasehir graben and the ne sw trending selendi and gordes basins western turkey abstract we have developed a significant body of new field based evidence relating to the history of crustal extension in western turkey we establish that two of the ne sw trending basins in this region the gordes and selendi basins whose sedimentary successions begin in the early miocene are unlikely to relate to late stage alpine compressional orogeny or to e w extension of tibetan type grabens as previously suggested we argue instead that these basins are the result of earlier late oligocene low angle normal faulting that created approximately n s scoop shaped depressions in which clastic to lacustine and later tuffaceous sediments accumulated during early mid miocene time separated by elongate structural highs these basins were later cut by e w trending plio quaternary normal faults that post date accumulation of the neogene deposits in addition we interpret the alasehir gediz graben in terms of two phases of extension an early phase lasting from the early miocene to the late miocene and a young plio quaternary phase that is still active taking into account our inferred earlier phase of regional extension we thus propose a new three phase pulsed extension model for western turkey we relate the first two phases to roll back of the south aegean subduction zone and the third phase to the westward tectonic escape of anatolia

seismotectonics of the southern boundary of anatolia eastern mediterranean region subduction collision and arc jumping the pattern of seismicity and fault plane solutions of earthquakes are used to outline the tectonic features of the southern boundary of anatolia in the eastern mediterranean and southeastern turkey the results of this study show that this boundary is composed of two distinct parts one in southeastern turkey and syria is a wide and complex zone of continental collision the other in the levantine basin of the eastern mediterranean is a zone of oceanic subduction in the region of continental collision three zones of seismicity are observed most of the seismic activity in this region follows the bitlis zone and is associated with a zone of thrusting and mountain building this appears to be the zone of most active deformation and plate consumption in the plate boundary region between arabia and turkey a less active zone of seismicity to the north of the bitlis zone is interpreted to have been more active in the past whereas another active zone of seismicity to the south is interpreted to be a zone which may be more active in the future as the main zone of plate consumption jumps to the south in the subduction zone of the eastern mediterranean the depth of the subducted slab and the rate of seismicity generally increase from east to west the zone of present day convergence between africa and turkey in the levantine basin can be best outlined by the northern edge of the mediterranean ridge the subduction zone in this area sequentially jumps to the south as small continental fragments collide with existing zones of subduction deep seismic activity near the gulf of antalya is associated with a detached subducted slab north of the anaximander mountains that is distinctly different from the seismic trend which is associated with present day active subduction the plate boundary between africa and turkey at the center of the levantine basin appears to have shifted to the south of the anaximander mountains and florence rise most of the focal mechanisms of the earthquakes along the entire southern boundary of anatolia indicate that n to nnw thrusting is the dominant mode of seismic deformation the present set of data is inconsistent with a major transform fault in the cyprean arc east of cyprus and in southeastern turkey

subduction hinge migration abstract it has been argued that back arc tectonics is controlled principally by the absolute motion of the overriding plate and the migration of the hinge of the downgoing plate thus hinge migration rollback is fundamentally important to understanding the geodynamics of back arc regions but even rates of hinge migration are unknown the rate of hinge migration can be estimated if the rate of back arc extension and the motion of the overriding plate are known rates of rollback in a hotspot reference frame range from near zero in the case of the new hebrides arc to 50 70 mm a at the south sandwich arc and may be as high as 100 mm a at the tonga trench but the hinge is actually advancing along the izu bonin trench as evidenced by the fact that there is no significant active extension behind the izu bonin arc the rate of hinge advance increases from north to south along the izu bonin trench and correlates well with the dip of the subducted slab active spreading in the mariana trough may be attributed to a rate of hinge advance which is lower than the rate of retreat of the philippine plate all of the possible motions of overriding plates and subduction hinges which might give rise to back arc opening are represented among the examples considered thus there is no unique circumstance in which back arc extension occurs finally there appears to be no clear correlation between hinge motion and the age of the subducted lithosphere

seismotectonics of the cyprian arc summary the cyprian arc forms the plate boundary between the anatolian plate in the north and the nubian and sinai plates in the south we examine the tectonic setting and seismic activity along the arc in light of new geodetic studies indicating relative ne sw plate motions across the arc the first order tectonic variations are determined by the arc s geometry the eastern arc oriented subparallel to relative motion is dominated by transcurrent tectonism the western arc is oriented almost normal to relative plate motion and is subjected to convergent processes variations in the level and depth of seismic activity along the western arc suggest that the northwestern section of the arc represents a subduction boundary whereas the southeastern section represents a collision boundary the two tectonic domains of the western arc are separated by a ne sw trending tear fault which produces large earthquakes such as the mw 6 8 1996 paphos earthquake we compare the geometrically similar cyprian and hellenic arcs and find significant differences in the rate direction and type of convergence across the two arcs the hellenic arc is subjected mainly to subduction whereas the shorter cyprian arc is subjected to subduction collision and transcurrent tectonic processes

active tectonics of the alpine himalayan belt between western turkey and pakistan summary over 80 new fault plane solutions combined with satellite imagery as well as both modern and historical observations of earthquake faulting are used to investigate the active tectonics of the middle east between western turkey and pakistan the deformation of the western part of this region is dominated by the movement of continental material laterally away from the lake van region in eastern turkey this movement helps to avoid crustal thickening in the van region and allows some of the shortening between arabia and eurasia to be taken up by the thrusting of continental material over oceanic type basement in the southern caspian mediterranean makran and black sea thus central turkey bounded by the north and east anatolian strike slip faults is moving west from the van region and overrides the eastern mediterranean at two intermediate depth seismic zones one extending between antalya bay and southern cyprus and the other further west in the hellenic trench the motion of northern iran eastwards from the van region is achieved mainly by a conjugate system of strike slip faults and leads to the low angle thrusting of iran over the southern caspian sea the seismicity of the caucasus shows predominantly shortening perpendicular to the regional strike but there is also some minor elongation along the strike of the belt as the causcasus overrides the caspian and black seas the deformation of the eastern part of this region is dominated by the shortening of iran against the stable borders of turkmenistan and afghanistan the north east direction of compression seen in zagros is also seen in north east iran and the kopet dag where the shortening is taken up by a combination of strike slip and thrust faulting large structural as well as palaeomagnetic rotations are likely to have occurred in ne iran as a result of this style of deformation north south strike slip faults in southern iran allow some movement of material away from the collision zone in ne iran towards the makran subduction zone where genuinely intermediate depth seismicity is seen within this broad deforming belt large areas such as central turkey nw iran azerbaijan central iran and the southern caspian appear to be almost aseismic and therefore to behave as relatively rigid blocks surrounded by active belts 200 300 km wide the motion of these blocks can usefully be described by poles of rotation the poles presented in this paper predict motions consistent with those observed and also predict the opening of the gulf of iskenderun ne of cyprus the change within the zagros mountains from strike slip faulting in the nw to intense thrusting in the se and the relatively feeble seismicity in se iran baluchistan this description also explains why the north south structures along the iran afghanistan border do not cut the east west ranges of the makran within the active belts surrounding the relatively aseismic blocks a continuum approach is needed for a description of the deformation even though motions at the surface may be concentrated on faults the evolution of fault systems within the active zones is controlled by geometric constraints such as the requirement that simultaneously active faults do not in general intersect many of the active processes discussed in this paper particularly large scale rotations and lateral movement along the regional strike are likely to have caused substantial complexities in older mountain belts and should be accounted for in any reconstructions of them

gps constraints on africa nubia and arabia plate motions summary we use continuously recording gps cgps and survey mode gps sgps observations to determine euler vectors for relative motion of the african nubian arabian and eurasian plates we present a well constrained eurasia nubia euler vector derived from 23 igs sites in europe and four cgps and three sgps sites on the nubian plate 0 95 4 8 n 21 8 4 3 e 0 06 0 005 myr 1 we see no significant 1m m yr 1 internal deformation of the nubian plate the gps nubian eurasian euler vector differs significantly from nuvel 1a 21 0 4 2 n 20 6 0 6 e 0 12 0 015 myr 1 implying more westward motion of africa relative to eurasia and slower convergence in the eastern mediterranean the arabia eurasia and arabia nubia gps euler vectors are less well determined based on only one cgps and three sgps sites on the arabian plate the preliminary arabia eurasia and arabia nubia euler vectors are 27 4 1 0 n 18 4 2 5 e 0 40 0 04 myr 1 and 30 5 1 0 n 25 7 2 3 e 0 37 0 04 myr 1 respectively the gps arabia nubia euler vector differs significantly from nuvel 1a 24 1 1 7 n 24 0 3 5 e 0 40 0 05 myr 1 but is statistically consistent at the 95 per cent confidence level with the revised euler vector reported by chu gordon based on a re evaluation of magnetic anomalies in the red sea 31 5 1 2 n 23 0 2 7 e 0 40 0 05 myr 1 the motion implied in the gulf of aqaba and on the dead sea fault dsf by the new gps nubia arabia euler vector i e ignoring possible sinai block motion and possible internal plate deformation grades from pure left lateral strike slip in the gulf and on the southern dsf with increasing compression on the central and northern dsf with relative motion increasing from 5 6 to 7 5 mm yr 1 1m m yr 1 from south to north along the northern dsf i e north of the lebanon restraining bend motion is partitioned between 6 1m m yr 1 left lateral motion parallel to the fault trace and 4 1m m yr 1 faultnormal compression relative motions on other plate boundaries including the anatolian and aegean microplates derived from the gps euler vectors agree qualitatively with the sense of motion indicated by focal mechanisms for large crustal earthquakes m 6 where data are available on fault slip rates on plate bounding faults north anatolian fault east anatolian fault dead sea fault red sea rift they are generally lower than but not significantly different from the full plate motion estimates suggesting that the majority of relative plate motion is accommodated on these structures

an improved method for determining the regional stress tensor using earthquake focal mechanism data application to the san fernando earthquake sequence the orientations of fault planes and slip directions indicated by a population of earthquake focal mechanisms can be used to determine best fit regional principal stress directions and r 2 1 3 1 a measure of relative stress magnitudes under the assumption of uniform stress in the source region this analysis allows for the possibility that failure occurs on preexisting zones of weakness of any orientation in the inversion we perform a grid search of stress models to find the one which requires the smallest total rotation of all the fault planes that is needed to match the observed and predicted slip directions the method allows for errors in orientations of both the fault planes and slip directions we have an objective means for identifying the more likely of the two possible fault planes from each focal mechanism relative to a given stress model thus we do not face the problem of ambiguity of nodal planes which plagues other analyses of this kind by using a grid search of stress models rather than a linearization scheme we are able to perform a realistic error analysis and thus establish confidence limits for the preferred regional stresses the method can be used to investigate possible stress inhomogeneities during earthquake sequences by analyzing subsets of the data population the technique has been applied to 76 events from the san fernando earthquake sequence for which we have found best fit stresses plunge and azimuth 1 7 187 2 27 281 3 62 84 and r 0 65 the average misfit between this stress model and all the data is about 8 and all but eight of the aftershocks have misfits of less than 20 these values are considerably less than the uncertainty of the focal mechanism determinations therefore significant stress inhomogeneities are not required by the data our analysis does not support the suggestion of a change in stresses during the aftershock sequence as proposed by others on the basis of an apparent change in focal mechanisms

neotectonic evolution of the anaximander mountains at the junction of the hellenic and cyprus arcs abstract the anaximander mountains occupying an outer arc position at the junction of the hellenic and cyprus arcs have been studied using a suite of geophysical data including multibeam swath bathymetry backscatter images seismic reflection profiles and gravity and magnetic data which support an improved description of its deformation history lithologically the western mountains can be correlated with the neritic limestones of the bey daglar unit of sw turkey the eastern mountains relate to the ophiolitic antalya nappe complex in addition to this lithological contrast a deep seated crustal difference which is best reflected in gravimetry relates to the mid tortonian aksu thrust phase after the early middle miocene eastward emplacement of the lycian nappes the serravallian tortonian stage was characterized by the development of an array of grabens with n120 e strikes which occupied a vast continental area that extended from southern aegean to southwestern turkey during the mid tortonian the last phase of thrusting marked the onset of a different kinematic regime related to the westward rotation of the anatolian platelet this late miocene change marked the start of differential subsidence that resulted in the formation of the anaximander mountains and which is reflected by an unconformity surface between the lower middle miocene and plio quaternary units the messinian quaternary period in the western part of the anaximander mountains was characterized by distributed sinistral shear parallel to n70 e which was marked by the onset of an extension on n20 e striking normal faults that formed long graben like depressions during the pliocene these basins were transected by n70 e striking sinistral strike slip fault zones although continued crustal extension suggests deformation in transtension the eastern part of the anaximander mountains is instead characterized by n150 e striking normal and or oblique normal fault zones which lack significant evidence of strike slip deformation close examination of newly calculated predicted relative plate motions between africa from nuvel 1a and anatolia from gps measurements indicates that plate motion vectors change rapidly at the junction between the hellenic and cyprus arcs because of the close proximity to the pole of anatolian rotation these calculations indicate that along both the eastern hellenic arc and the western cyprus arcs the florence rise the relative motion between the anatolian and african plates is sinistral on the southern florence rise deformation is characterized by pure left lateral faulting whereas farther northwest in the eastern anaximander mountains the component of strike slip decreases although arc normal convergence predicts the occurrence of thrust faulting southwestward trench retreat also causes an extension internal to this outer arc domain such that the preexisting n120 e striking thrust faults of the aksu phase have been reactivated as normal to oblique normal faults during the pliocene and quaternary the observed sinistral faulting on faults striking n70 e in the western mountains is consistent with the relative plate motion along the eastern hellenic arc and merges with the extensional domain in the eastern mountains

late cenozoic stress field in the cameli basin sw turkey a history of deformation has been determined for the cameli basin located in the western part of the major fethiye burdur fault zone interpreted as the on land continuation of pliny strabo fault system e g eastern boundary of the hellenic arc inversion of fault slip vectors affecting mio pliocene to quaternary formations in the cameli basin in the southwestern segment of the transtensional fethiye burdur fault zone yields two different normal faulting stress regimes characterized by a roughly orthogonal set of extensional axes a nw se n129 19 e 3 axis and a ne sw n50 16 e 3 axis the orientation of fault sets is predominantly around the ne sw direction in the major fethiye burdur fault zone making the extension nw se the mean r values are 0 74 and 0 69 for both extensions indicating a triaxial stress state which is clearly different from radial extension and from transitional to strike slip stress state the nw se extension is probably responsible for the formation of the cameli basin during mio pliocene time in contrast the inversion of focal mechanism solutions of shallow earthquakes occurring within the cameli basin identifies a present day predominantly extensional stress regime characterized by an approximately n s n184 e 3 axis which has an r value of 0 637 indicating a triaxial stress state the nearly orthogonal extensional stress regimes seem to have been acting contemporaneously with each other at different intensities from the mio pliocene onwards in sw turkey this may be attributed to the geodynamic effects related to the subduction of the african plate beneath anatolia diffusing along hellenic and cyprus arcs and in the west southwestward extrusion of anatolia our hypothesis is that the cause of the early nw se extension is the slab pull force due to the subduction process along the cyprus arc considered to be dominant up to plio quaternary the later ne sw to present day n s extension dominant since the plio quaternary is related to the combined forces of the anatolian extrusion and the subduction process along the hellenic arc

tectonic analysis of fault slip data sets using data that include the direction and the sense of motion on individual fault surfaces determined by slickenside lineations it is possible to reconstruct reduced stress tensors that correspond to the orientation of stress axes and to the ratio 2 3 1 3 between principal stress values 1 2 3 compression being positive no assumption is made concerning the orientation of fault planes relative to stress axes so that reactived faults are taken into account as well as newly created ones qualitative and quantitative methods for analysis of fault slip data were developed during the last 10 years the practical limitation of the methods and the necessity for critical field observations are emphasized these methods can be applied to focal mechanisms of earthquakes a more complex analysis of heterogeneous data sets involving an iterative separation of different stress systems is also discussed this analysis enables one to distinguish successive faulting events careful qualitative study in the field is in all cases essential

fault block rotations at the edge of a zone of continental extension southwest turkey the ne sw trending burdur acigol and baklan basins of southwest turkey are bounded by normal faults which became active in quaternary times prior to this a more widely spaced system of pliocene basins had existed each of the quaternary basins has a half graben geometry with a major nw dipping fault on its southeast side previous studies of the 1971 burdur earthquake caused by movement on the fault bounding the burdur basin have shown this fault to flatten slightly at depth deformation in the hangingwall of the fault controlling the pliocene basin in the burdur region suggests a planar fault geometry it is suggested that the pliocene fault rotated to its present shallow orientation then became inactive and acted as a detachment at depth for the more recent quaternary fault quaternary faults bounding the burdur acigol and baklan basins have a sinistral strike slip component with slip vectors indicating extension in an nw se direction this is at variance with regional n s extension in western turkey a solution for this contrast is found by invoking block rotations about vertical axes in a deforming zone between the rapidly extending aegean region to the west and the stable unstretched anatolian plateau to the east

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

palaeomagnetism of east siberian traps and kimberlites two new poles and palaeogeographic reconstructions at about 360 and 250 ma summary we studied basalt sills and dykes and kimberlite pipes from the eastern part of the siberian platform these are spread out over a few hundred kilometres and are divided into two age groups late permian early triassic mir aikhal and olenyek regions and late devonian early carboniferous viluy and markha basins aikhal region the palaeomagnetic poles determined for each sill or dyke are statistically different from each other but averaging all corresponding directions from these sills and dykes with those from kimberlites of different generations yields results with acceptable statistics this is probably due to the averaging out of secular variation and or changes in magnetic polarity the resulting palaeomagnetic poles allow one to reconstruct the palaeopositions of siberia during the two large flood basalt events at about 360 and 250 ma a significant rotation of the siberian platform during the devonian and carboniferous is suggested the new data are in general agreement with some earlier palaeomagnetic poles for the late permian early triassic traps of the tungusska basin and significantly reduce uncertainties for previous late devonian early carboniferous siberian poles which were very scattered together with geological and absolute age data the palaeomagnetic data support the hypothesis that kimberlite magmatism and trap intrusions were both rapid and relatively close in time the 360 ma event is emerging as a magmatic event with considerable extent over the russian and siberian platforms related to incipient continental break up and triple junction formation possibly at or near the time of the frasnian famennian mass extinction

recent temporal change in the stress state and modern stress field along the north anatolian fault zone turkey summary the north anatolian fault naf is a dextral strike slip fault which runs about 1400 km from east to west from the karliova triple junction to the aegean domain it was active during the plio quaternary as a consequence of the collision between the eurasian and arabian plates the naf intracontinental deformation zone contributes with the sinistral east anatolian fault to the westward extrusion of anatolia as a consequence of the northward drift of arabia the central naf zone forms a northward convex bend where the eastern naf n110 e trending segment extending from karliova is connected to the western naf n75 e trending segment running to aegea analysing the slip occurring in major earthquakes around the naf we show that the present day stress pattern along the naf agrees with stress magnitude and strike variations from east to west the stress regime along the naf is nnw trending hmax 1 transpression in eastern naf this progressively changes westwards to nw trending 1 transtension in central anatolia this lateral variation means a relative decrease of the hmax magnitude which evolves progressively to an extensional regime 1 vertical around the westernmost naf characterized by a nne trending hmin 3 the drastic change in the tendency of the regional stress state in the north anatolian block from compressional to extensional is effective within the central naf bend the stress regime determined by inversion of slip vectors measured on fault planes of various scales confirms the present day transtensional regime in the central part of the naf bend however the fault kinematic analysis of quaternary stress states within the central naf indicates that this stress state was not continuous throughout the quaternary indeed chronologies of fault slip vectors provide evidence for two distinct quaternary regional strike slip stress states within this zone both states have consistent ne and nw trending 3 and 1 axes respectively but have significantly different r values the change in the strike slip stress regime probably occurred in the middle pleistocene the older mean stress state is characterized by a n142 8 e trending 1 a n52 13 e trending 3 and a mean arithmetic rm value of 0 75 which indicates that the regional stress regime is transpressional the younger strike slip regime is characterized by a n142 14 e 1 axis a n52 10 e 3 axis and a mean rm of 0 24 which indicates the transtensional character for this regime the low r values of the stress deviators related to the recent stress state reflect normal component slips these temporal and spatial stress changes along the naf result from the coeval influence of forces due to the aegean subduction in the west and to the northward drift of arabia in the east over these boundary forces shear is superimposed along the naf which accommodates the anatolia extrusion however the timing of the temporal stress change permits the suggestion that the quaternary stress regime variation in north anatolia is mainly due to the influence of the aegean domain

recent state of stress change in the walker lane zone western basin and range province united states the nw to north trending walker lane zone wlz is located along the western boundary of the northern basin and range province with the sierra nevada this zone is distinguished from the surrounding basin and range province on the basis of irregular topography and evidence for both normal and strike slip holocene faulting inversion of slip vectors from active faults historic fault offsets and earthquake focal mechanisms indicate two distinct quaternary stress regimes within the wlz both of which are characterized by a consistent wnw 3 axis these are a normal faulting regime with a mean 3 axis of n85 9 w and a mean stress ratio r value r 2 1 3 1 of 0 63 0 74 and a younger strike slip faulting regime with a similar mean 3 axis n65 70 w and r values ranging between 0 1 and 0 2 this younger regime is compatible with historic fault offsets and earthquake focal mechanisms both the extensional and strike slip stress regimes reactivated inherited mesozoic and cenozoic structures and also produced new faults the present day strike slip stress regime has produced strike slip normal oblique slip and normal dip slip historic faulting previous workers have explained the complex interaction of active strike slip oblique and normal faulting in the wlz as a simple consequence of a single stress state with a consistent wnw 3 axis and transitional between strike slip and normal faulting maximum horizontal stress approximately equal to vertical stress or r 0 in both regimes with minor local fluctuations the slip data reported here support previous results from owens valley that suggest deformation within temporally distinct normal and strike slip faulting stress regimes with a roughly constant wnw trending 3 axis zoback 1989 a recent change from a normal faulting to a strike slip faulting stress regime is indicated by the crosscutting striae on faults in basalts 300 000 years old and is consistent with the dominantly strike slip earthquake focal mechanisms and the youngest striae observed on faults in plio quaternary deposits geologic control on the timing of the change is poor it is impossible to determine if there has been a single recent absolute change or if there is rather an alternating or cyclical variation in stress magnitudes our slip data in particular the cross cutting normal and strike slip striae on the same fault plane are inconsistent with postulated simple strain partitioning of deformation within a single regional stress field suggested for the wlz by wesnousky and jones 1994 the location of the wlz between the deep seated regional extension of the basin and range and the right lateral strike slip regional tectonics of the san andreas fault zone is probably responsible for the complex interaction of tectonic regimes in this transition zone in early to mid tertiary time the wlz appears to have had a similarly complex deformational history in this case as a back arc or intra arc region accommodating at least part of the right lateral component of oblique convergence as well as a component of extension

relation of alkaline volcanism and active tectonism within the evolution of the isparta angle sw turkey the isparta angle ia is formed along the boundary of the african and eurasian plates by ne and nw striking faults north of the antalya gulf in sw turkey the ne striking strike slip burdur fault bounds the ia to the west and is probably the continuation of the pliny system of the hellenic arc the nw striking aksehir fault bounds it to the east platform type parautochthonous mesozoic carbonate sequences such as the beydag and anamas akseki occur in the western and eastern parts of the ia respectively whereas allochthonous ophiolite nappes include the antalya beysehir hoyran and lycian nappes the ia and adjacent areas are divided into three areas the teke the antalya and the akseki fragments by ne nw and n striking active strike slip faults with normal components ia region volcanics are alkaline and hyperkaline in character potassic ultrapotassic and locally occur as subvolcanic stocks and dikes they can be traced between the afyon and isparta regions these volcanics consist mainly of

high altitude plio quaternary fluvial deposits and their implication on the tilt of a horst western anatolia turkey abstract this study investigates the origin and regional tectonic implications of high altitude plio quaternary fluvial deposits developed over the bozdag horst which is an important structural element within the horst graben system of western anatolia turkey a total of 23 deposits occur near the modern drainage divide comprising fluvial to occasionally lacustrine deposits the deposits are all elongated in n s direction with a width length ratio of 1 10 the largest of them is of 13 km in length with a maximum observable thickness of about 100 110 m morphological lithological deformational characteristics of these deposits and the drainage system of the area all suggest that the deposits were formed due to uplift and southward tilting of the bozdag horst this tilting which is estimated as 1 2 to 2 2 caused accumulation of the stream load along channels flowing from south to north all the deposits were later dissected by the same streams with the exception of one deposit which still preserves its original lake form these deposits are of quaternary age which corresponds to the latest n s directed extensional tectonic phase in the region

geodetic determination of the kinematics of central greece with respect to europe implications for eastern mediterranean tectonics we use a new satellite laser ranging global positioning system slr gps solution at seven sites in anatolia and aegea to obtain a better definition of the extrusion motion of the anatolian aegean block with respect to europe we show that this motion can be described in a first approximation by a counterclockwise rotation which transfers most of the motion of arabia to anatolia we combine 78 displacement vectors obtained at common points of two triangulation nets measured in central greece in 1895 and 1975 with the slr gps measurements to compute the velocity field over greece with respect to europe these measurements indicate that central greece is a zone of extension between the anatolian aegean counterclockwise rotation to the south and the northern greece clockwise rotation to the north this extension is principally localized within the gulf of corinth to the east but is distributed to the west we then extrapolate this velocity field to the whole aegea and western anatolia using recently published gps results as well as the slr results the narrow dextral north anatolian fault which limits the velocity field to the north progressively gives way to a much wider boundary zone where extension becomes dominant we show that the collision between the mediterranean ridge and africa began 3 6 ma and we describe the modifications that this collision has produced on the kinematic pattern both in aegea and on the mediterranean ridge