Present‐day kinematics of the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

The Middle East and eastern Mediterranean regions contain three major strike‐slip fault zones: the Dead Sea fault zone (DSFZ) and the North and East Anatolian fault zones (NAFZ and EAFZ). These accommodate northward motion of the African and Arabian plates relative to Eurasia and westward motion of the small Turkish plate. This study deduces an internally consistent solution for the present‐day kinematics of these plates, which is accurate to better than 20% and applicable throughout time since ∼5 Ma, by constraining the slip senses and rates on these strike‐slip fault zones. The 7 (±0.5) mm yr−1 left‐lateral slip rate on the DSFZ is associated with counterclockwise rotation of Arabia relative to Africa at 0.33° m.y−1 around an Eulcr pole near 33°N 23°E. The NAFZ takes up counterclockwise rotation of the Turkish plate relative to Eurasia at 0.83° m.y.−1 (±13%) around a pole at 31°N 35.5°E, with right‐lateral slip rate ∼15 mm yr−1. The resulting prediction for the EAFZ involves ∼14 mm yr−1 left‐lateral motion and ∼2 mm yr−1 of shortening between Arabia and Turkey. The triple junction of Africa, Arabia and Turkey is near the city of Kahramanmaras. This locality contains a narrow promontory, bounded by SSW‐trending left‐lateral faults at the edges of the Arabian and Turkish plates, which is loosely attached to the African plate, moving westward relative to its interior at ∼4 mm yr−1.