Conductive crust imaged in western Turkey by MT

Abstract

Wide‐band magnetotelluric (MT) data across the İzmir‐Ankara Suture Zone (İASZ), the Bornova Flysch Zone and the Menderes Massif of western Turkey images shallow and deep crustal structures. Inversions of the MT data reveals two subzones of the crust with varying thickness; the viscoelastic lower crust appears as a conductive zone (<75 ohm m), while the brittle upper crust is shown as a relatively high resistivity zone in the geoelectrical model. We also observe a very interesting twin‐core structure with a very high resistivity (>2000 ohm m) at a depth from 5 km to 25 km under the İASZ. A hypocentral cross‐section of earthquakes along the profile shows more dense seismic activity in and around the twin‐core structure. Due to this correspondence, we interpret that decoupling of the twin‐core structure could be responsible for the denser seismic activity around the İASZ. The depth of the lithosphere/asthenosphere boundary is rather shallow in the geoelectrical model, about 45 km at the SE and NW end of the profile, and 55 km in the middle.