timing kinematics and cause of aegean extension a scenario based on a comparison with simple analogue experiments abstract since the early 1970s most geodynamic models proposed for the eastern mediterranean consider that the initiation of extension in the aegean during the late middle miocene or later was a direct consequence of the westward extrusion of anatolia away from the arabia eurasia collision front in the late 1990s a few models have taken into account the increasing evidence for an earlier initiation of aegean extension arising mostly from the analysis of deformation within the various alpine metamorphic complexes of the area based largely on our own investigations we first present a review of the data that reliably constrain the minimum age for the initiation of extension in these complexes it shows that regional scale extension with a pattern of stretching orientations similar to that of the pliocene pleistocene was already strongly active in the aegean before the onset of arabian indentation into eurasia lower miocene vs middle or upper miocene this implies that the initiation of aegean extension did not result from the lateral extrusion of anatolia instead extension may have started owing to a process of gravity spreading of the continental lithosphere that had previously been thickened during alpine collision the main arguments favouring this interpretation are presented and a preliminary scenario is proposed for the neogene evolution of the eastern mediterranean in which lateral extrusion of anatolia occurred lately during southward spreading of the aegean lithosphere in order to test this hypothesis further physical experiments simulating the horizontal spreading of a continental lithosphere toward a free boundary have been carried out the analysis of various elements of the deformation field displacements strain rotations fault pattern and kinematics both in the experiments and in the aegean domain reveals an excellent agreement between the two not only do early stages of aegean extension appear to fit the gravity spreading hypothesis but so does the recent to present internal deformation of the aegean transverse e w active shortening observed in the northern aegean is commonly taken as one of the most striking pieces of evidence that aegean extension results from the lateral extrusion of anatolia the experiments indicate that such transverse shortening may equally develop as a result of pure gravity spreading associated with a pattern of faults and rotations that compares well with that of the northern aegean pure dextral shearing along some strands of the north aegean trough fault system and the related development of an asymmetric pattern of faults in the northern aegean are eventually the only features that evidently arise from the extrusion of anatolia since less than 3 ma finally we argue that during the early stages of aegean extension since at least 21 ma and until ca 11 ma the distribution of extensional strain on a regional scale has been controlled by the distribution of earlier thickening post thickening thermal weakening through partial melting of deep levels of the crust probably accounts for the localization of extensional strain within the areas of thick crust restoring the aegean in its most likely configuration at the onset of bulk crustal extension suggests that 1 the extensional strain rate remained roughly constant or has eventually decreased since the onset of aegean extension and 2 the amounts of extension before and after 16 ma have been roughly equal

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

rates of crustal deformation in western turkey as deduced from major earthquakes abstract western turkey has undergone dominantly n s extension probably since the late miocene this extensional regime caused the formation of e w trending grabens and similarly orientated normal faults the rates of deformation of the seismogenic layer caused by the major earthquakes ms 5 5 during the period between 1943 and 1983 are calculated for western anatolia this region is first analysed as a single system and then divided into two provinces namely the marmara and southwestern anatolian provinces which are investigated as two separate seismotectonic units the dominant mode of deformation in the marmara province is amounting to right lateral displacement 24 0 mm yr other modes of upper crustal deformation in this province can be explained by an average 7 1 mm yr n s extension 10 0 mm yr e w contraction and 0 13 mm yr thinning of a 10 km seismogenic layer the dominant mode of deformation in southwestern anatolia is about 13 5 mm yr extension in the n s direction this region is also undergoing e w extension of about 3 6 mm yr justifying the separation of marmara and southwestern anatolian provinces as two different seismotectonic provinces the average rate of thinning of the seismogenic layer in this area is 0 5 mm yr which is consistent with large scale normal faulting observed here it is found that n s extension in western anatolia increases from north to south while e w compression in the marmara province changes to e w extension in southwestern anatolia it is suggested that these kinematics may explain the present bending of the north anatolian transform forming a transtensional basin between the marmara and southwestern anatolian provinces

long term seismicity of istanbul and of the marmara sea region we examine the long term seismicity of the marmara sea region in turkey over a period of twenty centuries to attempt to answer two questions 1 how well recorded in history is the earthquake activity of this region and 2 does seismicity over this long period of time differ from that over the present century we study this densely populated and fast developing region because it is one of the most tectonically active regions on the continents that appears today to be relatively quiescent

trajectories of crustal deformation of western greece from gps observations 1989 1994 the geodynamic processes in the alpine mediterranean area are reflected in the recent crustal movements determined by satellite geodesy there is counterclockwise rotation of africa relative to eurasia with complex deformation in between we report repeated gps measurements carried out between se italy and the island of crete in the period 1989 to 1994 the data reveal distinct crustal motion of the central ionian islands and sw greece over the time span of five years western greece has moved 200mm 10mm to the sw relative to se italy and epiros the trajectories constructed from the repeated observations show that the boundary zone against the sites of no significant motion relative to south italy coincides with the kephalonia fault zone kfz this intense deformation accounts in part for the earthquakes that have frequently devastated the central ionian islands

late cenozoic stress distribution along the misis range in the anatolian arabian and african plate intersection region se turkey 1 this study defines the mio pliocene to present day stress regime acting at the northeastern mediterranean along the se border of the neogene adana basin along the misis range the inversion of earthquake focal mechanisms shows that the present day state of stress is dominantly a transtension combined the strike slip and extension with a consistent ene n83 e trending hmin 3 axis the inversion slip vectors measured on fault planes and chronologies between striations indicate a consistent strike slip stress regime that varied from transpressional initially to transtensional during pleistocene time with the latter continuing into recent times as indicated by earthquake focal mechanism inversions both states have consistent nnw n15 w trending compatible with nnw arabian drift direction and ene n75 e trending hmax 1 and hmin 3 axes respectively but have significantly different mean arithmetic stress ratio rm values rm 0 75 indicating transpression for the old regional stress regime and rm of 0 20 denoting transtensional for the younger regional stress regime the crosscutting of striations confirms also the change within the strike slip stress regime both stress regimes induce sinistral displacement along the major strike slip fault systems i e east anatolian fault karatas osmaniye fault the temporal stress regime change probably occurred during quaternary time and resulted from coeval influence of the superimposed forces owing to subduction processes in the southwest along the cyprus arc continental collision in the east and westward escape of the anatolian block in the north and west

active tectonics of the north and central aegean sea summary in this paper we examine the connection between the westward motion of turkey relative to europe and the extension in and around the aegean sea the principal new data available since the last attempt to synthesize the tectonics of this region by mckenzie 1978 are much improved focal mechanisms of earthquakes constrained by p and sh body wave modelling as well as by first motions these mechanisms show that the faulting in the western part of the aegean region is mostly extensional in nature on normal faults with a nw to wnw strike and with slip vectors directed nnw to nne there is evidence from palaeomagnetism that this western region rotates clockwise relative to stable europe in the central and eastern aegean and in nw turkey distributed right lateral strike slip is more prevalent on faults trending ne to ene and with slip vectors directed ne palaeomagnetic data in this eastern region is more ambiguous but consistent with very small or no rotations in the northern part and possibly anticlockwise rotations relative to europe in the south the strike slip faulting that enters the central aegean from the east appears to end abruptly in the sw against the nw trending normal faults of greece the kinematics of the deformation is controlled by three factors the westward motion of turkey relative to europe the continental collision between nw greece albania and the apulia adriatic platform in the west and the presence of the hellenic subduction zone to the south as the right lateral slip on the north anatolian fault enters the aegean region it splays out becoming distributed on several parallel faults the continental shortening in nw greece and albania does not allow the rotation of the western margin of the region to be rapid enough to accommodate this distributed e w right lateral shear and thus leads to e w shortening in the northern aegean which is compensated by n s extension as the southern aegean margin can move easily over the hellenic subduction zone the dynamics of the system once initiated is self sustaining being driven by the high topography in eastern turkey and by the roll back of the subducted slab beneath the southern aegean the geometry of the deformation resembles the behaviour of a system of broken slats attached to margins that rotate in spite of its extreme simplicity a simple model of such broken slats is able to reproduce quantitatively most of the features of the instantaneous velocity field in the aegean region including the slip vectors and nature of the faulting in the eastern and western parts the senses and approximate rates of rotation the overall extensional velocity across the aegean and the distribution of strain rates as seen in the seismicity and topography or bathymetry and using geodetic measurements as part of this study we re examined the relation between the surface faulting and the focal parameters determined seismologically for the three large 1981 gulf of corinth earthquakes and reassessed the evidence for associating particular earthquakes in the sequence with observed surface faulting an important result is that in one of the events there is a resolvable discrepancy between the slip vector measured at the surface and that determined from the seismic body waves

ground motion scaling in the marmara region turkey summary predictive relationships for the ground motion in the marmara region northwestern turkey are parametrized after regressing three component waveforms from regional earthquakes in the frequency range 0 4 15 0 hz and in the distance range 10 200 km the data set consists of 2400 three component recordings from 462 earthquakes recorded at 53 stations moment magnitudes m w range between 2 5 and 7 2 the largest event for which we have waveforms available m w 7 2 occurred in duzce on 1999 november 12 the aftershocks of that earthquake together with the aftershocks of the 1999 august 17 izmit event m w 7 4 are included in the dataset regressions are performed independently on fourier velocity spectra and on peak ground velocities for a large number of sampling frequencies a simple model is used to relate the logarithm of the measured ground motion to excitation site and propagation terms results obtained for peak velocities are used to define a piecewise continuous geometrical spreading function g r a frequency dependent q f and a distance dependent duration function the latter is used through random vibration theory rvt in order to predict time domain characteristics i e peak values of the ground motion the complete model obtained for the peak ground motion was used to match the results of the regressions on the fourier amplitudes fourier velocity spectra for the combined horizontal motion are best fit by a hinged quadrilinear geometrical spreading function for observations in the 10 200 km hypocentral distance ranges as a function of frequency f 100 f 1 0 hz r 1 0 for r 30 km r 0 6 for 30 100 km the frequency dependent crustal shearwave quality factor q f coefficient q f 180 f 0 45 the t 5 75 per cent duration window provides good agreement between observed and predicted peak values by modelling the behaviour of the small earthquakes at high frequency we also quantified a regional parameter 0 055 s spectral models with one single corner frequency brune and with two corner frequencies atkinson and silva fit the observed high frequency excitation levels equally well whereas the model by atkinson and silva fits the low frequency observations slightly better than brune s rvt is used to predict the absolute levels of ground shaking following boore s implementation of the stochastic ground motion model boore s smsim codes our regional empirical predictive relationships are compared to the ones adopted in several regions of the world from california to western united states

the seismotectonics of the marmara region turkey results from a microseismic experiment the marmara region is an active tectonic zone characterised by the transition between the dextral strike slip regime of the north anatolian fault naf and the extension regime of the aegean sea strong historical earthquakes m 7 and the presence of known seismic gaps imply a high level of seismic hazard a synthesis of recent studies of active tectonics in the region is presented including inland and underwater observations the branching of the naf is explained in terms of increasing influence of the extension historical information and instrumental seismicity are reinterpreted in order to have a critical appraisal of the existence of large seismic gaps in the central and eastern marmara sea focal mechanisms of strong earthquakes are used to obtain orientation and shape factor of the deviator of the stress tensor the resulting tensor is in shear regime s 2 vertical but close to extension r 0 93 with s 1 oriented n145 0 a microseismic experiment with 48 stations distributed around the marmara sea was carried out in october december 1995 a total of 137 microearthquakes were located and 23 of those were selected to obtain focal mechanism solutions the epicentral distribution indicates activity along the system of pull apart basins north of the marmara sea the segment between marmara sea and the saros bay activated in 1912 and the gulf of izmit site of the 1754 earthquake are now silent seismic activity is very linear along the northern branch of the naf but it is more divused on the bursa and iznik branches southeast of the marmara sea the stress tensor obtained from the focal mechanisms of the micro earthquakes is compared to the one inverted from teleseismic data the microseismic stress is compatible with a shear intermediate regime like the one obtained from strong earthquakes though not as well constrained one of the acceptable solutions having the same orientation but diverent shape r 0 5 2000 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

present day kinematics of the middle east and eastern mediterranean the middle east and eastern mediterranean regions contain three major strike slip fault zones the dead sea fault zone dsfz and the north and east anatolian fault zones nafz and eafz these accommodate northward motion of the african and arabian plates relative to eurasia and westward motion of the small turkish plate this study deduces an internally consistent solution for the present day kinematics of these plates which is accurate to better than 20 and applicable throughout time since 5 ma by constraining the slip senses and rates on these strike slip fault zones the 7 0 5 mm yr 1 left lateral slip rate on the dsfz is associated with counterclockwise rotation of arabia relative to africa at 0 33 m y 1 around an eulcr pole near 33 n 23 e the nafz takes up counterclockwise rotation of the turkish plate relative to eurasia at 0 83 m y 1 13 around a pole at 31 n 35 5 e with right lateral slip rate 15 mm yr 1 the resulting prediction for the eafz involves 14 mm yr 1 left lateral motion and 2 mm yr 1 of shortening between arabia and turkey the triple junction of africa arabia and turkey is near the city of kahramanmaras this locality contains a narrow promontory bounded by ssw trending left lateral faults at the edges of the arabian and turkish plates which is loosely attached to the african plate moving westward relative to its interior at 4 mm yr 1

gps derived strain rate field within the boundary zones of the eurasian african and arabian plates we use the gps velocity field 1988 1998 for eastern mediterranean and asia minor to determine the crustal deformation strain rate field in an area bounded by 35 n and 43 n and 20 e and 48 e we calculate the normal and shear strain rate components associated with the major faults and compare these qualitatively with seismological data uncertainties in the calculation of the strain rates reach 50 nstrain yr 1 in sparsely observed parts of anatolia whereas we estimate errors 20 nstrain yr 1 in the aegean and marmara regions the largest compressional strain rate components in the eastern part of the study area occur along the greater caucasus mountain front reaching 70 nstrain yr 1 1 nstrain yr 1 0 0317 10 15 s 1 the north anatolian fault zone is the clearest feature in the shear strain rate field it is expressed as a pronounced dextral strike slip fault zone reaching rates of up to 170 nstrain yr 1 this holds true also for the izmit area where the august 17 1999 earthquake occurred central anatolia is almost strain free whereas extension prevails in western anatolia the principal axes of extension vary around the n s direction with strain rates of up to 85 nstrain yr 1 these extensional areas coincide with graben features and normal faulting earthquakes the central and southwestern aegean sea is strain free with values far below 40 nstrain yr 1 the seismic cluster around the dodekanissa islands southeastern aegean sea coincides with nw se oriented extension attaining strain rates of up to 90 nstrain yr 1 this area of extension also exhibits recent active volcanism the entire hellenic arc shows compressional strain rates perpendicular to the arc the pliny strabo troughs along the eastern segment of the arc show left lateral shear strain rates reaching 80 nstrain yr 1 significant extension is found in central greece with a nne ssw oriented maximum of 120 nstrain yr 1 centered around the gulf of corinthos the kephalonia fault zone in nw greece is a distinct dextral fault zone separating apulia from the rapidly moving aegean microplate right lateral shear strain rates reach 150 nstrain yr 1

coeval plutonism and metamorphism in a latest oligocene metamorphic core complex in northwest turkey a metamorphic core complex of latest oligocene age crops out in the kazdag mountain range in northwest turkey the footwall of the core complex consists of gneiss amphibolite and marble metamorphosed at 5 1 kbar and 640 50 c the average muscovite and biotite rb sr ages from the gneisses are 19 ma and 22 ma respectively and imply high temperature metamorphism during latest oligocene times the hangingwall is made up of an unmetamorphosed lower tertiary oceanic accretionary melange with upper cretaceous eclogite lenses the hangingwall and footwall are separated by an extensional ductile shear zone two kilometres thick mylonites and underlying high grade metamorphic rocks show a n trending mineral lineation with the structural fabrics indicat ing down dip top to the north shear sense the shear zone the accretionary melange and the high grade metamorphic rocks are cut by an undeformed granitoid with a 21 ma rb sr biotite age analytically indistinguishable from the rb sr biotite ages in the surrounding footwall gneisses the estimated pressure of the metamorphism and that of the granitoid emplacement indicate that the high grade metamorphic rocks were rapidly exhumed at 24 ma from a depth of 14 km to 7 km by activity along the shear zone the subsequent exhumation of the metamorphic rocks to the surface occurred during pliocene quaternary times in a transpressive ridge between two overstepping fault segments of the north anatolian fault zone the high grade metamorphic rocks of the kazdag range are surrounded by voluminous calc alkaline volcanic and plutonic rocks of late oligocene early miocene age which formed above the northward dipping hellenic subduction zone the magmatic arc setting of the core complex and stratigraphic evidence for subdued topography in northwest turkey prior to the onset of extension suggest that the latest oligocene regional extension was primarily related to the roll back of the subduction zone rather than to the gravitational collapse

quaternary paleoclimatic paleoceanographic and tectonic evolution of the marmara sea and environs strabo 63 bc 21 ad book 1 3 4 jones 1954 themarmarasea fig 1 hasalwaysattractedinterestasagreatgatewaylinkingtheblackseato the eastern mediterranean sea through a net work of narrow straits with shallow sills straitsof bosphorus istanbul and dardanelles c anakkale forthepast2500 3000yr informa tion about surface and bottom currents depthsoundings and sea level variation were crucialforsafenavigationacrossthesestraitsbysea far ingpeopleandexplorers thusconstitutingama jorstrategicassetandyieldingenormouseconom icandpoliticaladvantages throughoutantiquity sailors knew that the bottom waters across thestraits of dardanelles and bosphorus owednorthward and utilized this knowledge to sailintothemarmaraseaandblackseabyloweringlargebasketswithweightsintothenorth owingmediterranean water to counteract the strongsouth directed surface out ow from the blacksea systematic scienti c investigations in the mar marasearegionstartedinthelate19thcentury the rstbathymetricsurveyrevealedthepresenceof three deep basins and their intervening ridges andrussow 1901 p nar 1943 subsequentlyproposedthatasinglefaulttransectedthesethreebasins extending from the izmit bay in the eastto the gulf of saros in the west pfannensteil 1944 noted the rhombohedric shape of thedeepmarmaraseabasinsandproposedthattheridgesseparatingthebasinsrepresenthorstblocksbounded by normal faults healsosuggested inadditiontothestraitofbosphorus thepresenceofasecondchannel thesakaryabosphorus fig 1 which connected the black sea to the mar mara sea during the quaternary in 1948 ketinpublished his renowned paper revealing the truenatureofthenorthanatolianfaultasoneoftheworld slargest active intra continental strike slipfaults ketin 1948 pavoni 1961 and kopp etal 1969 proposedthataseriesofsyntheticand

estimates of attenuation structure in the cinarcik basin of the marmara sea northwest turkey abstract the attenuation structure 1 q in the sediments of the cinarcik basin of the marmara sea was estimated from the raw shot data of a multi channel seismic reflection experiment using a wavelet modeling technique the estimated attenuation called the effective q is the sum of the inelastic absorption and the apparent attenuation the estimated effective q values along the north south trending seismic profiles are interpreted together with their time migrated seismic sections there are several local minima in the boundary separating the low

active crustal deformation in the marmara sea region nw anatolia inferred from gps measurements deformation in the boundary zone between the anatolian and eurasian plates has been determined by means of repeated global positioning system gps measurements three campaigns 1990 1992 1994 were carried out around the marmara sea the network lies within the active earthquake belt of nw anatolia extending from the western part of the north anatolian fault zone nafz to the aegean extensional province results of the dense network consisting of 52 sites clearly reveal the westward motion of anatolia the rates amount to 17 mm a 3 mm a on average relative to istanbul located at the northeastern edge of the sea of marmara based on the trajectories for the displacements of the observation sites it is concluded that the marmara sea forms a transition zone between the europe fixed region of thrace black sea eurasia and nw anatolia at the western extremity of nw anatolia the motion bends from w to wsw 247 the strain field calculated yields an e w oriented right lateral strike slip movement average 0 12 ppm a maximum 0 41 ppm a accompanied by ne sw extension average 0 12 ppm a maximum 0 52 ppm a at the eastern end of the marmara sea and n s extension at the aegean shore line comparisons with the directions of t axes derived from 65 fault plane solutions of earthquakes show remarkable agreement

a study on the active crustal deformation of the north and east anatolian fault zones abstract active crustal deformation in the north anatolian fault zone nafz and the east anatolian fault zone eafz based on seismicity data is examined the results show that the deformation in the nafz is taken up by extension on an azimuth of 59 at a rate of 27 mm yr and as compression on an azimuth of 149 and a rate of 20 mm yr the average dextral lateral motion on the naf is about 23 mm yr this motion in the western part of the naf is 16 mm yr while it increases in the eastern part of the fault to 27 mm yr in the eafz the deformation is taken up as nearly n s compression n7 e at a rate of 5 mm yr and as nearly e w extension n97 at a rate of about 9 mm yr the average sinistral lateral motion has a rate of about 6 mm yr the expected slip rates from plate motions along the north anatolian fault are of the order of 38 mm yr the predicted slip rates for east anatolian fault are 19 mm yr or 29 mm yr the seismicity of the last 140 years can account for the expected deformation along the nafz for the eafz however it is possible that part of the total deformation has been expressed aseismically

the horizontal velocity field in the deforming aegean sea region determined from the moment tensors of earthquakes we use the spatial distribution of seismic moment tensors of earthquakes in the aegean region over the time interval 1909 1983 to recover a continuous horizontal velocity field that describes the overall deformation of the lithosphere at large length scales the calculated velocity field is dominated by two effects 1 an e w right lateral shear of the eastern aegean related to motion on the north anatolian fault becoming distributed as it enters the aegean and 2 a n s extension probably related to the sinking of the slab in the hellenic trench the southern part of the central aegean is found to be moving in a sw direction relative to europe at a rate of about 30 mm yr probably a lower bound with an error of around 10 mm yr and rotating clockwise in the seismogenic upper crust this velocity field is accommodated by right lateral strike slip faults in the eastern aegean and by normal faults that rotate clockwise in central greece a comparison of paleomagnetic declination data with the expected rotation of rigid elongate inclusions in the velocity field shows in most places an agreement in sense and approximate agreement in rate of rotation expected rotation rates of line elements are sometimes too low probably because our derived velocity field is smoothed and unable to match locally high strain rates there is only one part of the region where line elements are predicted to rotate in either clockwise or counterclockwise directions depending on their orientation this is in western turkey which coincident ally is the only place where paleomagnetic rotations in both directions have been observed this coincidence in particular suggests to us that the analogy of rigid elongate inclusions in the velocity field responding to forces on their bases may be useful in predicting the senses and approximate rates of rotation of crustal blocks in deforming continental regions the velocity field we obtain preserves the strike directions of the major faults as directions of zero length change in spite of considerable smoothing we use this observation to speculate that the interaction between the upper crust and the rest of the lithosphere beneath it may involve an interplay of effects on one hand the variation of strength with direction in the crust may control the strike directions of faults that form or become reactivated and may also limit the velocity fields that are allowable on the other hand the fault bounded blocks may rotate in the velocity field in response to forces on their bases which would require the velocity field to change with time if the directions of zero length change are fixed to the blocks

the gps strain rate field in the aegean sea and western anatolia the gps velocity field of the aegean sea and western anatolia is used to determine crustal deformation strain rates for the period 1988 to 1996 the zone from the marmara sea to the north aegean trough is associated with strong right lateral shear motion with maximum strain rates of 170 nstrain a in the northern aegean sea the extensional deviatoric axes are oriented nne ssw associated with strain rates reaching 150 nstrain a and in western anatolia varying around n s with rates of up to 95 nstrain a the extensional areas mostly coincide with active graben features the south western aegean sea is almost strain free in general the areas of high geodetic strain rates are accompanied by distinct seismic clusters whereas the strain free regions are nearly aseismic

the strain field in northwestern greece and the ionian islands results inferred from gps measurements abstract recent crustal movements detected by the analysis of repeated satellite geodetic measurements reflect the ongoing geodynamic processes in the alpine mediterranean area superimposed on the large scale counterclockwise rotation of the african plate complex dynamic processes are affecting the lithospheric fragments between the african and eurasian plates key features to better understand the driving forces and associated seismic activity in the africa eurasia collision zone are the calabrian and hellenic arcs in this paper geodynamic investigations along the west hellenic arc are discussed they are based on two epochs 1989 and 1993 of satellite geodetic measurements carried out using the us global positioning system gps the results are presented in terms of relative displacements and strain rates within the time span of 4 years southwestern greece has moved to the southwest relative to southeastern italy by an average of 120 mm increasing from 80 mm at lefkada in the center of the ionian islands to 160 mm at the peloponnesus the maximum strain rate is 0 18 strain a located in the vicinity of lefkada where anomalously high earthquake activity is observed the data provide strong evidence for dextral strike slip motion on the order of 25 mm a along the kephalonia fault zone kfz the deformation field of the kfz is interpreted as a transition zone between the kinematics of the apulian platform and the west hellenic fold and thrust belts

the marmara poly project tectonics and recent crustal movements revealed by space geodesy and their interaction with the circulation of groundwater heat flow and seismicity in northwestern turkey an interdisciplinary project of eth zurich in collaboration with turkish universities is described the research area of nw turkey was chosen because it exhibits active crustal movements pronounced seismicity elevated heat flow and characteristic deep groundwater circulation patterns in order to elucidate the interrelations between these features the collaboration of different specialists is required among the disciplines employed are geology tectonics seismology geodesy hydrogeology and geothermics

compressibility of molten high ti mare glass evidence for crystal liquid density inversions in the lunar mantle static compression density measurements of molten apollo 14 black glass have been performed at liquidus conditions in the pressure range 1 0 11 5 gpa a range of values for the birch murnaghan isothermal bulk modulus k2173 k 13 23 gpa and the pressure derivative dkdp 7 3 respectively fit the data within the uncertainties k2173 k 15 5 gpa and dkdp 5 2 provides the best fit to the four measured pressure density pairs corrected to isothermal conditions the ultramafic high ti mare glass is significantly more compressible than other ultrabasic and basic silicate liquids previously studied the compressibility appears to be related to tio2 content the apollo 14 black glass sample has the highest tio2 content of the pristine mare glasses which are thought to be primary melts from a differentiated and strongly heterogeneous lunar mantle our density measurements confirm the prediction that molten black glass will be denser than equilibrium olivine and orthopyroxene at pressures greater than 2 0 and 0 5 gpa respectively these density inversions correspond to depths greater than approximately 410 and 100 km in the lunar mantle since orthopyroxene replaces olivine at 1 5 gpa 300 km on the liquidus our results constrain the maximum depth of buoyancy for high ti magmas at 400 km in the lunar mantle

the bursa gonen depression nw turkey a complex basin developed on the north anatolian fault in this study we show that the southern branch of the north anatolian fault has been active since late pliocene time and that evidence of activity is supported by geological and seismological data the southern branch of the north anatolian fault consists of four segments from west to east yenice gonen manyas mustafakemalpasa uluabat and bursa these faults delimit the bursa gonen depression with the bandirma mudanya uplift to the north and uludag sularya uplift to the south the bursa gonen depression includes upper pliocene to recent sediments that thicken to the south suggesting a deposition pattern under active fault control study of fault kinematics suggests that the bursa gonen depression started as a small pull apart basin during late pliocene time and then evolved to a large depression the faults delimiting this depression are still active and capable of producing future earthquakes

modes rates and geomorphological consequences of active tectonics in the marmara region nw turkey a critical overview based on seismotectonic field observations abstract the marmara region is a tectonically active belt in northwestern turkey where field evidence of the collusion escape and strike slip tectonics is manifested the effect of tectonics on the modification of coastal and morphological features of nw turkey is although extensive relatively unknown and rarely appreciated active tectonics in the region has normal and reverse forms of dip slip namely uplift and subsidence and strike slip as is plainly demonstrated by the 1999 marmara earthquake sequence along the north anatolian fault naf these tectonic effects are presently related to the geometry of the naf the mode of lateral movement along it and proximity to the fault the 1999 earthquakes provided data indicating that over a return period of about 250 years seismotectonic strike slip movements recur up to 5 m and dip slip movements up to 2 6 m suggesting the rate of tectonics along the naf in the marmara region is on the order of 20 mm a for strike slip and 10 mm a for dip slip movements these rates are sufficiently large to form during the late quaternary prominent features of the landscape in the marmara region

fidelity of analytic drop size distributions in drizzling stratiform clouds based on large eddy simulations abstract cloud microphysical parameterizations and retrievals rely heavily on knowledge of the shape of drop size distributions dsds many investigations assume that dsds in the entire or partial drop size range may be approximated by known analytical functions the most frequently employed approximations of function are of the type of gamma lognormal khrgian mazin and marshall palmer at present little is known about the accuracy of these approximations the authors employ a dsd dataset generated by the cooperative institute for mesoscale meteorological studies large eddy simulation cimms les explicit microphysics model for stratocumulus cases observed during the atlantic stratocumulus transition experiment astex field project the fidelity of analytic lognormal and gamma type dsd functions is evaluated according to how well they represent the higher order moments of the drop spectra such as precipitation flux and radar reflectivity it is concluded that for boundary layer marine drizzling st

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

space time correlations of seismotectonic parameters examples from japan and from turkey preceding the izmit earthquake analysis of the correlation between fractal attributes of complex seis motectonic variables may offer insights into seismic hazard assessment the guten berg richter moment magnitude and moment source area relations yield a direct fractal relationship among the gutenberg richter b value occurrence rate and the characteristic linear dimension of the fault plane square root of fault surface area in contrast temporal variation in the correlation dimension of epicenters dc i s found in several studies to correlate negatively with the b value in different regions of the world spatial variations between the b value and dc also tend to oppose each other in japan negative correlations are also observed in the regional scale com parisons of the capacity dimension do of active fault systems and the b value however at local scales the relationship yields both positive and negative correla tion the occurrence of positive or negative correlation appears to be controlled by different modes of failure within the active fault complex spatial variations between the b value and dc along the northern anatolian fault zone nafz suggest that on average from 1900 to 1992 earthquake magnitudes were higher and epicenters more scattered within the central nafz than in its eastern and western segments temporal analysis reveals that the relationship between the b value and dc are nonstationary temporal correlations are generally negative a period of positive correlation is observed between 1976 and 1988 during the last 3 yr of this period 1985 1988 both the b value and d c rose significantly suggesting that stress release occurs through increased levels of low magnitude and increasingly scattered seismicity this dispersed pattern of seismicity in combination with higher slip rates in the central nafz may be one that did not adequately relieve stress along the main fault zone this change in behavior and the tendency during the last century for the seismicity to migrate westward along the nafz may point to an increased risk of larger magnitude events such as the i zmit earthquake

the major asperities of the 1999 mw 7 4 izmit earthquake defined by the microseismicity of the two decades before it

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

source parameters of large earthquakes in the east anatolian fault zone turkey summary the east anatolian fault zone accommodates most of the motion between the arabian plate and the apparently little deforming interior of central turkey the direction of overall slip across this zone is crucial to the determination of the slip rate on the north anatolian fault we use long period p and sn waveforms to determine the source parameters of the four largest earthquakes that occurred in or near the east anatolian fault zone in the last 35 years only one of these actually involved left lateral strike slip motion on a ne sw fault but the other three and the nearby 1975 lice earthquake all had steeply dipping nodal planes with a nnw strike if these were the auxiliary planes then all the earthquakes had a slip vector direction within about 10 of 063 if this direction represents the arabia turkey motion then the slip rate on the north anatolian fault must be in the range 31 to 48 mm yr with a probable value of 38 mm yr and the overall slip rate across the east anatolian fault zone must be about 29mmyr with a range of 25

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

scientific objectives of current and future wegener activities abstract the wegener group has promoted the development of scientific space geodetic activities in the mediterranean and in the european area for the last fifteen years and has contributed to the establishment of geodetic networks designed particularly for earth science research wegener currently has three scientific objectives which are related to plate boundary processes sea level and height changes and postglacial rebound in a full exploitation of the space geodetic techniques namely slr vlbi and gps the individual scientific projects do not only pursue these objectives but also contribute to improving and developing the observation techniques as well as the modelling theories in the past particularly slr observations within wegener medlas have provided a fundamental contribution to determine the regional kinematics of the tectonic plates in the mediterranean with high precision with gps spatially denser site distributions are feasible and in several wegener projects detailed studies of tectonically active areas were possible on the basis of repeated episodic gps observations current projects associated with wegener are successful in separating crustal movements and absolute sea level variations as well as in monitoring postglacial rebound these tasks require high precision height determinations a problem central to all of the present wegener activities in these projects continuously occupied gps sites are of increasing importance time series of heights observed with continuous gps can be determined with a few centimeters rms error thus enabling the reliable estimates of vertical rates over relatively short time intervals regional networks of continuous gps sites are already providing results relevant for example for the study of postglacial rebound the mediterranean area is an extraordinary natural laboratory for the study of seismotectonic processes and the wealth of observations acquired in previous wegener projects together with new space geodetic observations will allow the test of geophysical hypotheses linking three dimensional deformations of the earth s surface to the dynamics of the earth s interior in particular it is anticipated that wegener projects will aim at a test of the slab detachment hypothesis the complex investigations on sea level fluctuations presently carried out at basin scale from the strait of gibraltar to the black sea make it possible to study the present and recent past interactions of ocean atmosphere and solid earth as well as to develop appropriate models to assess future aspects

gps and geologic estimates of the tectonic activity in the marmara sea region nw anatolia a dense network of 52 global positioning system gps sites is used to determine the velocity field and strain rate pattern at the western end of the north anatolian fault zone nafz in the marmara sea region nw anatolia based on four gps campaigns carried out biannually between 1990 and 1996 the detailed kinematic field of crustal motion is calculated the southernmost station shows an average rate of 22 3 mm yr oriented westward relative to istanbul eurasia this value is indicative of the dextral strike slip motion of nw anatolia relative to the black sea the gps velocity field reveals that the sites located on the thrace black sea block show negligible motion relative to istanbul the gps based deformation pattern of three sections crossing the westward prolongation of the nafz is compared with neotectonic data both the gps and the neotectonic data give clear evidence that most of the deformation occurs along a relatively narrow e w oriented zone this belt extends from the single fault trace of the nafz through the gulf of izmit the marmara sea the arkoy region and the gulf of saros into the north aegean trough nat in addition the cross sections show the increasing influence of the n s oriented extension in the aegean sea region from the comparison of the directions and rates of shear and normal strain deduced from gps data with geologic and seismic observations we conclude that the most active zone of dextral shear follows a line along mudurnu valley the northern marmara sea and the saros trough where it joins the nat

global positioning system gps estimates of crustal deformation in the marmara sea region northwestern anatolia abstract in the marmara sea region the relative motion between the anatolian and eurasian lithosphere has been measured by means of the modern techniques of space geodesy using the global positioning system gps in order to resolve in detail the kinematic field within the active earthquake belts of northwestern anatolia two gps campaigns were carried out across a dense network consisting of 45 sites preliminary results reveal horizontal westward motion of anatolia relative to eurasia of 2 4 cm y on average that runs along the western end of the north anatolian fault zone e w oriented right lateral strike slip movement average 0 06 ppm y maximum 0 13 ppm y 1ppm y 1 strain y and ne sw extension average 0 06 ppm y maximum 0 21 ppm y can be obtained from the calculated strain field in the west strike slip motion trending wsw ene is observed these findings are compared to the stress pattern derived from seismology and neotectonics