Lithospheric Structure of the Western North Anatolian Fault Zone from 3-D Teleseismic Tomography

Abstract:

The North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) is a 1500 km long active strike-slip fault that spans northern Turkey. During the past century a series of migrating earthquakes have sequentially activated different segments of the fault. The last major events of this sequence are the 1999 Izmit and Düzce earthquakes, which are consistent with a gradual westward migration in seismicity. The next active segment of the fault may be close to the city of Istanbul, posing a major risk for its population.

Historically, the NAFZ exhibits a recurrent migrating sequence of high magnitude earthquakes along the fault zone, suggesting that it accommodates most of the plate motion between Anatolian and Eurasian plates in a narrow shear zone. From GPS studies following the Izmit and Düzce events, this motion does not appear to be constrained to the upper crust, and may extend at least to the lower crust. However, the geometry of the fault in the lower crust and upper mantle is at present poorly understood and previous tomographic studies do not provide a consistent picture of the velocity structure in this region.

To better constrain the geometry of the shear zone at depth, in particular beneath the most recently active segment of the fault, an array of 70 temporary seismic stations with a 7 km spacing was deployed for 18 months as part of the FaultLab project. Amongst all the events recorded, those of magnitude ≥ 5 and situated between 27 and 98 degrees from the centre of the array were selected to perform 3D teleseismic tomography. Synthetic resolution tests indicate that structures as small as the average station spacing can be recovered to a depth of approximately 80 km.

The work aims to provide a higher resolution image of the velocity structure beneath the western segment of the NAFZ, leading to a better understanding of the shear zone in the lower crust and upper mantle.