Abstract
Here, we investigated the crustal structure beneath eastern Anatolia, an area of high seismicity and critical significance for earthquake hazards in Turkey. The study was based on the local tomography method using data from earthquakes that occurred in the study area provided by the Turkiye Cumhuriyeti Ministry of Interior Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate Earthquake Department Directorate of Turkey. The dataset used for tomography included the travel times of 54,713 P-waves and 38,863 S-waves from 6355 seismic events. The distributions of the resulting seismic velocities (Vp, Vs) down to a depth of 60 km demonstrate significant anomalies associated with the major geologic and tectonic features of the region. The Arabian plate was revealed as a high-velocity anomaly, and the low-velocity patterns north of the Bitlis suture are mostly associated with eastern Anatolia. The upper crust of eastern Anatolia was associated with a ~10 km thick high-velocity anomaly; the lower crust is revealed as a wedge-shaped low-velocity anomaly. This kind of seismic structure under eastern Anatolia corresponded to the hypothesized existence of a lithospheric window beneath this collision zone, through which hot material of the asthenosphere rises. Thus, the presented results help to clarify the deep structure under eastern Anatolia.
Highlights
Active tectonic forces at the boundaries of lithospheric plates lead to strong seismic activity in tectonically active regions that affects the infrastructure and lives of people therein
The East Anatolian Plateau is bounded by two Neo-Tethyan sutures: the İzmir-Ankara-Erzincan suture (IAES, shown in Figure 1) in the north and the Bitlis suture in the south [1]
The horizontal sections of the obtained seismic tomography model demonstrated a strong predominance of high-velocity anomalies in the southern part of the studied region beneath the Arabian plate
Summary
Active tectonic forces at the boundaries of lithospheric plates lead to strong seismic activity in tectonically active regions that affects the infrastructure and lives of people therein. Anatolian fault (NAF) and the East Anatolian fault (EAF), which intersect in the study area and form the Karliova triple junction (KTJ) (Figure 1) Geosciences 2021, 11, 91 cluding the North Anatolian fault (NAF) and the East Anatolian fault (EAF), which intersect in the study area and form the Karliova triple junction (KTJ) (Figure 1) This system of plates is pushed northwardof bythe theArabian movement ofat the plate at a ratewith of ~18 mm/yr northward by the movement plate a Arabian rate of ~18 mm/year respect to with respect to the Eurasian plate [3,4]. These results can help determine the links between the surface geology and deep structures controlled by complex collisional processes
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