Influence of fault rocks’ mineralogy on fault behaviour: implications from the Palu-Hazar Lake section of the East Anatolian Fault (Elazığ, Türkiye)
- 1İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Maden Fakültesi, Jeoloji Mühendisliği, İstanbul, Türkiye (cakirir@itu.edu.tr)
- 2Fırat Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, Jeoloji Müh. Bölümü, 23200, Elazığ, Türkiye
- 3Konya Teknik Üniversitesi, Kimya ve Kimyasal İşleme Teknolojileri, Selçuklu, Konya, Türkiye
- 4Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum, Dynamik der Lithosphäre, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
- 5Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi, Merkez Araştırma Laboratuvarı, Davutpaşa 34420 Esenler, İstanbul, Türkiye
- 6Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi, İnşaat Fakültesi, Harita Mühendisliği Bölümü, Davutpaşa 34420 Esenler, İstanbul Türkiye
- 7Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, Kandilli Rasathanesi ve Deprem Araştırma Enstitüsü, Jeodezi Bölümü 34684 Üsküdar, İstanbul Türkiye
The multi-disciplinary studies yield a more complicated picture on seismic cycles, especially with the increasing evidence on creeping, slow slip events, tremors and repeating earthquakes. Recent observations support triggering of large earthquakes even by small or slow earthquakes and creeping of different portions of the fault. The Palu-Hazar Lake section of the East Anatolian Fault (EAF) is an example place of such kind of behaviour, where the 24 January Mw 6.8 Sivrice Earthquake was nucleated along the neighbouring segments. This sinistral strike-slip fault forms the eastern boundary of the Anatolian Scholle between Karlıova (Bingöl) in the northeast and Türkoğlu (Kahramanmaraş) in the southwest within the complex tectonic frame of the Eastern Mediterranean.
In this study, we aim to correlate any potential influence of bedrock lithology on this creeping section of the EAF. First, we revised the active fault and geological maps by using the multi spectral satellite images (e.g., Landsat 8 OLI) and high-resolution digital surface models (~0.65 m ground pixel resolution). Then, we determined potential exposures along the EAF and made systematic sampling both from cohesive and incohesive fault rock exposures within our study region. Collected samples are prepared for X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements, especially for the determination of the fault clay types. Fault rock samples from ophiolitic (mafic and ultramafic) rocks and accretionary complexes (shale, sandstone, volcanics, ophiolite fragments) are mostly made of vermiculite and include minor amounts of smectite and chlorite according to our XRD measurements. Although the low shear strength of vermiculate may trigger aseismic slip at shallow depths with change in pore water pressure, it is possible that there may be no correlation between bedrock lithology and creeping, considering the poorly known seismic history of the EAF.
This study is supported by TÜBİTAK Project no. 118Y435.
Keywords: earthquake, East Anatolian Fault, creep, fault rocks
How to cite: Çakır, İ., Zabcı, C., Köküm, M., Ünal Ercan, H., Kıray, H. N., Yazıcı, M., Basmenji, M., Yağcı, Ö., Şahinoğlu, N. B., Doğan, U., and Ergintav, S.: Influence of fault rocks’ mineralogy on fault behaviour: implications from the Palu-Hazar Lake section of the East Anatolian Fault (Elazığ, Türkiye), EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-14310, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-14310, 2023.
