The Maras Triple Junction (southern Turkey) based on digital elevation model and satellite imagery interpretation

Abstract

This paper describes major structures in the area of the triple junction of the African, Anatolian and Arabian plates near Maras (southern Turkey). A review of the literature on the paleogeographic evolution since mid‐Cretaceous time leads to the idea of the southern Tethys (Mesogea) persisting between Anatolia and Africa‐Arabia until middle‐late Miocene. Consequently, collision may have started later and northward subducting lithosphere may still exist under Anatolia. The Dead Sea fault may have initiated near the first collision between the Anatolian continent and the western corner of the African/Arabian continent at which point it may have propagated southward. A digital elevation model, SPOT and Landsat‐MSS images, and field work suggest relief js mainly related to finite deformation resulting from on going collision that began at around 13 Ma. The images show that the East Anatolian fault does not crosscut the central Taurus belt. Field data argue that this belt is a left‐lateral oblique‐slip fault zone. The southern contact of Anatolia passes north of the Amanos range (continental par t of the African plate) and connects with the Misis range. To the southwest, the Adana low plain may be regarded as a basin formed at a releasing bend. The Karasu fault zone, which belongs to the Dead Sea fault zone, seems to be transpressive, and in this case the Karasu basin is not a graben. North of the Amanos range, the Giirun arc is thrust to the north and may be considered the result of local collision of the uplifting Amanos range into Anatolia. The Maras triple junction is accompanied by deformations affecting all plates at the regional scale.