Neotectonic deformation patterns in the convex-northwards arc of the North Anatolian fault zone

Abstract

Summary The convex-northwards arc of the North Anatolian fault zone between Çerkeş and Erbaa contains structures and landforms permitting right-lateral displacements for several time intervals to be estimated. Within the Pontus Formation (Late Miocene-Early Pleistocene) in basins along the fault zone, an unconformity, representing a time interval from the latest Tortonian to the earliest Pliocene, is interpreted as marking the transformation of the structure from a broad shear zone to a narrow fault belt. Although the amount of displacement during the shear zone phase is unknown the offset of a sedimentary facies boundary in the Lower Pontus Formation of the Havza-Ladik basin demonstrates that since the latest Tortonian there has been 25 km of right-lateral slip. The offset of valleys and ridges suggests that there has been 8 km of Quaternary displacement, about 2 km of it in the late Quaternary and at least 500 m during the Holocene. Structures in the Pontus Formation indicate that the early history of the western Neogene basins was influenced by regional compression and that the later histories of all basins were dominated by strike-slip displacements. The main active trace is discontinuous, the 2 km-wide belt containing subordinate en échelon faults whose geometry is consistent with development during right-lateral shear.