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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. © 1981.