Recent Faulting in Northern Turkey

Abstract

The North Anatolian fault of Turkey is almost completely analogous to the San Andreas and other active regional strike-slip faults. Convincing evidence of extensive faulting can be traced continuously from more than 900 km in a broad arc from west of Abant to east of Karhova, except for two areas of en echelon offset near Niksar and Erzincan. Distinctive rift topography and abundant physiographic features of Quaternary faulting such as scarps and abundant physiographic features of Quaternary faulting such as scarps and sag-ponds mark the fault throughout; they are particularly well exposed at Gerede, north of Havza and Ladik, at Destek, and east of Suşehri. Consistent dextralstream offsets of several hundred meters characterize most segments, and many large rivers show much greater offsets. Strikingly similar to the Garlock-San Andreas pattern is the fault junction 10 km east of Karliova, where the southeast-trending North Anatolian fault is abutted by a major northeast-trending active fault zone that can be traced discontinuously southwest at least 200 km through Hazar Golii and is probably an extension of the sinistral Dead Sea fault system. Neither fault zone has obvious physiographic expression east of the junction near Karhova.