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also situated in the convergent boundary between the African plate and Eurasian plate.
The African plate has rotated counter-clockwise with respect to Eurasian plate dur-
ing the last 92 Ma (Müller et al., 1997). The spatial distribution of earthquakes and
detailed topographic studies indicate the existence of a northward-dipping subducted
slab beneath this region (African plate beneath Eurasian plate). However, according to
Müller et al. (1997), a roughly N-S directed lithosphere shortening rate is increasing
from west to east in the Aegean region. The region is also characterized by high heat
fl ow, which is related to thin and deformed (stretched) continental crust. This thinning
is continuing until now and for this reason, it is the worldwide most seismically active
and internally deforming area of the entire Alpine-Himalayan belt and at of all conti-
nents (Jackson et al., 1994; Mercier et al., 1989).
Figure 3. Faults and earthquakes, M>5 in 19002006 (KOERI Earthquake Catalog, 2008).
Papazachos (1999) defi nes the northern and eastern boundaries of the Aegean
plates which comprises the Hellenic Arc, Greek mainland, and western Turkey. The
Anatolian plate has a relative motion of 2225 mm/year with respect to the Eurasian
Plate according to McClusky et al. (2000). The focal mechanism solutions of earth-
quakes indicate that the faulting in the western part of the Aegean region is mostly
extensional in nature on normal faults, with a NW to WNW strike and slip vectors
directed NW to N (Taymaz, 2001). The evidences from paleomagnetism show that this
region rotates clockwise relative to a stable Eurasia. According to Piper et al. (2001),
paleomagnetic data in the eastern Aegean Region is consistent with very small or no
rotations in the northern part and possibly counter-clockwise rotations in the south
relative to the Europe, including some ambiguities. The strike-slip faulting that lying
through the central Aegean from the east appears to end abruptly in the SW against the
NW trending normal faults of Greece.
 
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