Morphotectonic And Paleoseismological Features Along Erkenek And Gölbaşı Segments Of East Anatolian Fault Zone, Turkey

Abstract

Earthquake is natural hazards which affect negatively human life. To understand earthquakes and reduce its damages, it is necessary to determine active faults and reveal their nature. Determining and understanding of active faults is essential to paleoseismological studies. The aim of paleoseismological studies is to specify the characteristics and dating of historical and prehistorical earthquakes and estimate probability and magnitude of future earthquakes. East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ) with a number of different segments is among the active fault zones in the world. The Erkenek and Golbasi segments of EAFZ has typical morphotectonic features of strike-slip fault zones such as deflected stream channels, shutter ridges, linear valleys, and sag ponds. Our paleoseismological studies exhibit historical/prehistorical earthquake events and related with surface ruptures. We have also calculated statistical results of probabilistic analysis using instrumental earthquakes data along the Erkenek and Golbasi segments for estimating probable occurrence and recurrence interval period for earthquakes with magnitudes of 4.5-6.5. Accordingly, recurrence interval for a probable earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 on the Erkenek and Golbasi segment is about 194-252 years.