Late Pleistocene intraplate extension of the Central Anatolian Plateau, Turkey: Inferences from cosmogenic exposure dating of alluvial fan, landslide, and moraine surfaces along the Ecemiş Fault Zone

Cengiz Yıldırım*, M. Akif Sarıkaya, Attila Çiner

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

39 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Here we documented the vertical displacement, slip rate, extension rate, and geochronology of normal faults within a narrow strip along the main strand of the Ecemiş Fault Zone. The Kartal, Cevizlik, and Lorut Faults are normal faults that have evident surface expression within the strip. Terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide geochronology revealed that the Kartal Fault deformed the 104.2 ± 16.5 ka aged alluvial fan surface and the Cevizlik Fault deformed the 21.9 ± 1.8 ka old moraine and talus fan surfaces. Our topographic surveys indicated 120 ± 10 m and 13.1 ± 1.4 m surface-breaking vertical displacements along the Kartal and Cevizlik Faults, respectively. Accordingly, we suggest a 1.15 ± 0.21 mm a−1 slip rate and 0.66 ± 0.12 mm a−1 extension rate for the last 104.2 ± 16.5 ka on the Kartal Fault, and a 0.60 ± 0.08 mm a−1 slip rate and 0.35 ± 0.05 mm a−1 extension rate for the last 21.9 ± 1.8 ka on the Cevizlik Fault. We believe that these structures are an integral part of intraplate crustal deformation in the Central Anatolia. They imply that intraplate structures such as the Ecemiş Fault Zone may change their mode through time; presently, the Ecemiş Fault Zone has been deformed predominantly by normal faults. The presence of steep preserved fault scarps along the Kartal, Cevizlik, and Lorut Faults point to surface-breaking normal faulting away from the main strand and particularly signify that these structures need to be taken into account for regional seismic hazard assessments.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1446-1464
Number of pages19
JournalTectonics
Volume35
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
©2016. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

Funding

We cordially thank A.M. Celal Şengör, Taylor F. Schildgen, Aurelia Hubert-Ferrari, and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments and judicious evaluations that significantly improved this manuscript. The data for this paper are available by contacting the corresponding author ([email protected]). We are grateful to Birlik Harita Inc. from Ankara for providing the remote sensing data. This work was supported by TÜBİTAK grant 112Y087.

FundersFunder number
Birlik Harita Inc.
Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştirma Kurumu112Y087

    Keywords

    • Central Anatolia
    • cosmogenic
    • Ecemiş Fault Zone
    • normal fault
    • Quaternary
    • Turkey

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