Recent Devastating Earthquakes in Turkey and Active Tectonics of the Aegean and Marmara Seas

Abstract

The Eastern Mediterranean region, including the adjacent areas of western Turkey and Greece, is indeed one of the most seismically active and rapidly deforming regions within the continents. Thus, the wide range of active deformational processes observed in the Eastern Mediterranean means that this region provides a unique opportunity to improve our understanding of the complex dynamics of continental collision, including strike-slip faulting, subduction and crustal extension, as well as associated volcanism, intense seismic activity and geomorphological events (e.g. tsunamis) and their impacts on societal life and civilization. Recent devastating earthquakes along the North Anatolian Fault Zones (NAFZ) such as the August 17, 1999 Golcuk-I. zmit (Mw=7.4) and the November 12, 1999 Duzce (Mw=7.1) earthquakes confirm the complexity of the crustal deformations throughout the region. Furthermore, the source mechanisms and rupture histories of the moderate and large size earthquakes that occured in the last decades contribute to conceive the nucleation and growth of fault system in the region. In this article, we present novel seismological observations and briefly presented the source characteristics of the recent damaging earthquakes in Turkey and adjacent areas. The latter includes the Marmara and North Aegean Seas, the Lake districts region of SW Turkey, Orta-Cankin of central Turkey and the East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ) in order to display the active tectonic structures associated with seismicity. Investigating and monitoring of the active seismogenic zones will provide a better understanding for predicting the occurences of future earthquakes and hence an improved physical basis for mitigation of their effects on environment and societies in this earthquake-prone region.