Is the Amik Basin (SE turkey) a triple-junction area? Analyses of SPOT XS imagery and seismicity

Abstract

In the eastern Mediterranean, plate motions occur between the Arabia/Anatolia, Africa/Arabia and Anatolia/Africa boundaries along the Amanos Fault, the Dead Sea Fault and the Cyprus Arc, and the extension of the latter on land. Detailed enhancement and classification procedures applied to SPOT XS imagery of the Hatay region, and centred on the Quaternary Amik Basin, have revealed a prominent NE - SW-trending tectonic lineament. Recent seismicity suggests that this NE - SW-trending lineament dies out in the Quaternary Amik Basin in the east and continues to the Cyprus Arc to the south-west. Structural lineament extensions derived from SPOT XS imagery using linear edge enhancement and unsupervised classification methods and the distribution of seismicity in the Hatay region show that this region has been affected by the East Anatolian Fault Zone, the Dead Sea Fault Zone and the Cyprus - Antakya Transform fault. These fault associations accommodate northerly movement of the African and Arabian plates toward the Eurasian plate. The Amik Basin appears to have been formed by interaction among the Amanos Fault interpreted here as a continuation of the East Anatolian Fault the left-lateral Dead Sea Fault, and the left-lateral Cyprus - Antakya transform fault. Active faults belonging to the aforementioned structural zones meet one another to form a triple junction at the Amik Basin near Antakya.