Muğla Fayı, GB Türkiye: Morfometrik, Jeomorfolojik ve Paleosismolojik Yeni Bulgular

Muğla Fault is an active normal fault located in southwest Anatolia. It is represented by WNW-ESE trending parallel fault segments in the vicinity of Muğla city while it has more simple geometry towards SE with a trend of NW-SE. The fault controls the northeastern boundary of the Muğla basin and cuts mainly through crystallized limestone and marble. Fault scarps are clearly visible in places along the 25 km long fault. The fault planes with a high dip angle to SW are generally covered by thick slope deposits. In this study, morphometric and paleoseismologic investigations were performed in order to investigate the tectonic activity of the Muğla Fault. The calculated morphometric indices; hypsometric integral (HI), ratio of valley floor width to valley height (V_f), mountain front sinuosity (S_mf), revealed that the Muğla Fault controls the morphology and tectonic processes are more dominant than erosional processes. An excavated surface in a construction area in the Muğla city center was studied for collecting paleoseismological data. The data from this surface suggest a historical earthquake that occurred around B.C. 6000 and at least one (possibly two) paleoearthquake(s) after B.C. 5200. We suggest that the two (possibly three) paleoevents, which are determined in this study, were able to rupture the surface and the magnitude of each event was M ≥ 6.