Neotectonics of the southeast Marmara region, NW Anatolia, Turkey

The North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) bifurcates into three branches in the Marmara Region, which is a transition zone between the strike-slip tectonics manifested by the NAFZ and the N-S directed extensional regime of western Anatolia. The southern Marmara region is characterized by the middle and the southern branches while the northern branch controls the north Marmara region. The south Marmara region is characterized by approximately E-W trending rhomb-like horst and graben complexes bounded by strike slip-faults with normal component, striking mainly in E-W direction. This study documents the geometry and the structural characteristics of the NAFZ in the southeast Marmara region and discusses the commencement age of the strike-slip tectonics using deformation patterns of Neogene units and information available in the literature. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.