Chapter 6 - Structural Evolution of the Northeast–Southwest Trending Tectonic Lineament and a Model for Graben Formation in the Denizli Region of Western Anatolian (West of the Zagros Fold-and-Thrust Belt)

Abstract

Abstract There are northeast (NE) trending fractures that cut the current graben structures approximately perpendicularly in the southwest (SW) of Anatolia. The formation and situation of these fractures are important in the extensional phases of western Anatolia. The intersection of these fractures with grabens controls the formation of geothermal fields and travertine deposits. The Denizli region, which is the subject of this study, is characterized by many graben structures; active extension has continued in the NE–SW direction since the Pleistocene. The strike of the fault that forms the south margin of the Denizli graben changes from west to east as east–west, NW–SE, and again east–west trending stresses. During the first extensional phase, which was oriented north–south, the Babadag–Honaz fault occurred as a single fracture. In a second extensional phase, NE–SW trending fractures formed in the Denizli basin. These fractures cut and partly separated the first stage of the Babadag–Honaz fault and other structures and partly changed the strike of the fault (from east–west to west-NW–east-SE). The third and latest extension phase in the region is trending NE–SW and continues today. The Cukurkoy fault, which separates the Babadag and Honaz faults, occurred during the third extension phase and dislocated the Honaz fault toward the north, away from the Babadag fault. The Pamukkale fault and the Karakova horst shaped during third extension period.