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Review of the neotectonics of the Eastern Turkish–Armenian Plateau by geomorphic analysis of digital elevation model imagery

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Abstract

Digital elevation model (DEM) images provide synoptic views of the Earth’s surface allowing the analysis of landforms of still active tectonic and volcanic structures at regional scale. A DEM at 250 m pixel size constitutes regional scale data particularly efficient to investigate the late Miocene–Quaternary deformation of the Eastern Turkish–Armenian Plateau in the Arabian–Eurasian area of convergence. Geomorphic analysis of the DEM image associated with review of fault-plane solutions of earthquakes show that faults are mostly strike-slip with small vertical component. Here we show that the orientations of the tectonic and volcanic structures fit with a tectonic regime characterized by N–S shortening and E–W lengthening, consistent with westward escape of Anatolia perpendicular to the direction of the Arabia–Eurasia shortening. The uniform uplift of the plateau, the predominance of strike-slip faulting, the lack of major thrusts and the occurrence of normal faults do not support a model of going-on crustal thickening due to intracontinental convergence. On the contrary, our observations can be better interpreted in terms of lithospheric thinning and mantle upwelling related to gravity escape of Anatolia.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been funded by both the French CNRS (project PICS) and the Turkish TUBITAK (project YBAG-0078/DPT), with support from the French Embassy in Ankara and the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères in Paris. The authors are grateful to Onur Köse for his assistance in the realization of the DEM image. The paper benefited from constructive and thorough reviews of Clark Burchfiel and Rob Reilinger.

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  1. FRE 2639: Imagerie Géophysique, CURS-IPRA, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, Avenue de l’Université, 64013, Pau cedex, France

    Damien Dhont

  2. UMR 7072: Laboratoire de Tectonique, case 129, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 4 place Jussieu, 75252, Paris cedex 05, France

    Jean Chorowicz

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Correspondence to Damien Dhont.

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Dhont, D., Chorowicz, J. Review of the neotectonics of the Eastern Turkish–Armenian Plateau by geomorphic analysis of digital elevation model imagery. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 95, 34–49 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-005-0020-3

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