EGU23-10222
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-10222
EGU General Assembly 2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Broadband seismological analyses in the Eastern Mediterranean: implications for late-stage subduction, plateau uplift and the development of the North Anatolian Fault

Ian Bastow1, Christopher Ogden2, Thomas Merry1, Rita Kounoudis1, Rebecca Bell1, Saskia Goes1, and Pengzhe Zhou1
Ian Bastow et al.
  • 1Imperial College, London, UK
  • 2University of Leicester, UK

The eastern Mediterranean hosts extensional, strike-slip, and collision tectonics above a set of fragmenting subducting slabs. Widespread Miocene-Recent volcanism and ~2km uplift has been attributed to mantle processes such as delamination, dripping and/or slab tearing/break-off. We investigate this region using broadband seismology: mantle tomographic imaging (Kounoudis et al., 2020), SKS splitting analysis of seismic anisotropy (Merry et al., 2021), and receiver function study of crustal structure (Ogden & Bastow, 2021). Anisotropy and crustal structure are more spatially variable than recognised previously, but variations correspond well with tomographically-imaged mantle structure. Moho depth correlates poorly with elevation, suggesting crustal thickness variations alone do not explain Anatolian topography: a mantle contribution, particularly in central and eastern Anatolia, is needed too. Lithospheric anisotropy beneath the North Anatolian Fault reveals a mantle shear zone deforming coherently with the surface, while backazimuthal variations in splitting parameters indicate fault-related lithospheric deformation. Anisotropic fast directions are either fault-parallel or intermediate between the principle extensional strain rate axis and fault strike, diagnostic of a relatively low-strained transcurrent mantle shear zone.

How to cite: Bastow, I., Ogden, C., Merry, T., Kounoudis, R., Bell, R., Goes, S., and Zhou, P.: Broadband seismological analyses in the Eastern Mediterranean: implications for late-stage subduction, plateau uplift and the development of the North Anatolian Fault, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-10222, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-10222, 2023.