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Upper crustal structure of the Marmara region, northwest Turkey from aeromagnetic anomalies: western segment of the North Anatolian Fault

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Abstract

This paper presents an investigation describing the potential future earthquake areas and the subsurface structures in the Marmara region (NW Turkey) by using aeromagnetic data. The region locates in the entrance of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) into the Marmara Sea and it has a crucial importance due to its seismological past. Firstly, the aeromagnetic dataset has been processed by using the power spectrum analysis. This analysis shows that the average depths of causative sources in the region range from 0.39 to 18.52 km. Secondly, to emphasize the magnetic anomalies caused by shallow sources, high-pass filter has been applied to the data. Finally, the Second vertical derivative method has been implemented to high-pass filtered data for delineating the exact location and trends of the subsurface structures. This final map clearly shows the boundaries of the causative sources. Anomalies align in the E-W direction from Izmit to Sapanca while the other anomalies located around Duzce elongate in the NE-SW direction. Moreover, the second vertical derivative map has shown that horsts in the region have no magnetization, and the magnetic anomalies become weak along the E-W direction in the north of the Central Ridge Horst. This can be associated with the existence of the horsts that are older than the magnetic material surrounding them. In addition, these horsts act as a barrier to the NAFZ and the NAFZ cannot pass through the region easily and the NAFZ has been separated into sub-branches towards the west in this region. As a result, this study provides valuable insights about the subsurface structures in the region and it plays a key role to define future earthquake areas.

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Fig. 1

(modified from Okay and Tuysuz 1999). NAFZ: North Anatolian Fault Zone. The red rectangle represents the study region

Fig. 2

(modified from Saroglu et al. 1992; Ates et al. 2009 and Emre et al. 2013). SF: Sarikoy Fault, S-GF: Saros–Gazikoy Fault, EF: Edincik Fault, C-BFZ: Can-Biga Fault Zone, MF: Manyas Fault, UF: Ulubat Fault, NAFZ: North Anatolian Fault Zone, AFl: Almacik Flake, IL: Iznik Lake, ML: Manyas Lake, AL: Apolian Lake, CRH: Central Ridge Horst. Red color: Holocene fault, Purple color: Quaternary fault. Green rectangles in the Marmara Sea indicate approximately locations of the horsts

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Acknowledgements

The aeromagnetic data of the study region were obtained from the General Directorate of the Mineral Research and Exploration (MTA) of Turkey. Authors are grateful to the MTA of Turkey for the provision of gridded aeromagnetic data. Our kindest thanks go to anonymous referees for their comprehensive and delicate review of this paper. We also thank Dr. Claudio Lo lacono for the editorial handling of our paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, Department of Geophysical Engineering, Suleyman Demirel University, 32260, Isparta, Turkey

    Ezgi Erbek Kiran & Mustafa Nuri Dolmaz

  2. Faculty of Engineering, Department of Geophysical Engineering, Ankara University, 06100, Besevler, Ankara, Turkey

    Abdullah Ates

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  1. Ezgi Erbek Kiran
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  2. Abdullah Ates
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  3. Mustafa Nuri Dolmaz
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Correspondence to Ezgi Erbek Kiran.

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Erbek Kiran, E., Ates, A. & Dolmaz, M.N. Upper crustal structure of the Marmara region, northwest Turkey from aeromagnetic anomalies: western segment of the North Anatolian Fault. Mar Geophys Res 42, 29 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-021-09450-0

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