Frictional strength of North Anatolian fault in eastern Marmara region

Ali Plnar*, Zeynep Coşkun, Aydln Mert, Doǧan Kalafat

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Frequency distribution of azimuth and plunges of P- and T-axes of focal mechanisms is compared with the orientation of maximum compressive stress axis for investigating the frictional strength of three fault segments of North Anatolian fault (NAF) in eastern Marmara Sea, namely Princes' Islands, Yalova-Çlnarclk and Yalova-Hersek fault segments. In this frame, we retrieved 25 CMT solutions of events in Çlnarclk basin and derived a local stress tensor incorporating 30 focal mechanisms determined by other researches. As for the Yalova-Çlnarclk and Yalova-Hersek fault segments, we constructed the frequency distribution of P- and T-axes utilizing 111 and 68 events, respectively, to correlate the geometry of the principle stress axes and fault orientations. The analysis yields low frictional strength for the Princes' Island fault segments and high frictional strength for Yalova-Çlnarclk, Yalova-Hersek segments. The local stress tensor derived from the inversion of P- and T-axes of the fault plane solutions of Çlnarclk basin events portrays nearly horizontal maximum compressive stress axis oriented N154E which is almost parallel to the peak of the frequency distribution of the azimuth of the P-axes. The fitting of the observed and calculated frequency distributions is attained for a low frictional coefficient which is about μ ≈ 0.1. Evidences on the weakness of NAF segments in eastern Marmara Sea region are revealed by other geophysical observations. Our results also show that the local stress field in Çlnarclk basin is rotated ≈30° clockwise compared to the regional stress tensor in Marmara region derived from the large earthquakes, whereas the local stress tensor in Yalova-Çlnarclk area is found to be rotated ≈30° counterclockwise. The rotation of the two local stress fields is derived in the area where NAF bifurcates into two branches overlaying large electrical conductor.

Original languageEnglish
Article number62
JournalEarth, Planets and Space
Volume68
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2016
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Plnar et al.

Funding

This research was supported by Bogaziçi University Research Fund project code BAP9802D. The waveform data used for CMT inversion were obtained from KOERI seismic network (doi: 10.7914/SN/KO ). We appreciate the comments raised by the reviewers, the handling Editor Takane Hori and the chief editor Yasuo Ogawa who significantly improved the manuscript.

FundersFunder number
Bogaziçi UniversityBAP9802D

    Keywords

    • Frictional coefficient
    • Local stress field
    • Marmara Sea
    • Stress field rotation
    • Çlnarclk basin

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