HR: 11:50h
AN: T52B-07    [Abstracts]
TI: Normal and transcurrent convergence along the Cyprian Arc
AU: Ben-Avraham, Z
EM: zvi@terra.tau.ac.il
AF: Tel Aviv University, Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Tel Aviv, 69978 Israel
AU: * Wdowinski, S
EM: shimonw@rsmas.miami.edu
AF: Tel Aviv University, Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Tel Aviv, 69978 Israel
AU: * Wdowinski, S
EM: shimonw@rsmas.miami.edu
AF: University of Miami, Division of Marine Geology and Geophysics, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149-1098 United States
AU: Arvidsson, R
EM: ronald.arvidsson@privat.utfors.se
AF: Uppsala University, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala, SE-752 36 Sweden
AU: Ekstrom, G
EM: ekstrom@seismology.harvard.edu
AF: Harvard University, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 United States
AB: The Cyprian Arc forms the plate boundary between the Anatolian plate in the north and the Nubian and Sinai plates in the south. We examine the tectonic setting and seismic activity along the arc in light of new geodetic studies indicating relative NE-SW plate motions across the arc. The first order tectonic variations are determined by the arc's geometry. The eastern arc, oriented sub-parallel to relative motion, is dominated by transcurrent tectonism. The western arc is oriented almost normal to relative plate motion and is subjected to convergent processes. Variations in the level and depth of seismic activity along the western arc suggest that the northwestern section of the arc represents a subduction boundary, whereas the southeastern section represents a collision boundary. The two tectonic domains of the western arc are separated by a NE-SW trending tear fault, which produces large earthquakes, such as the MW=6.8, 1996, Paphos Earthquake. We compare the geometrically similar Cyprian and Hellenic arcs and find significant differences in the rate, direction and type of convergence across the two arcs. The Hellenic Arc is subjected mainly to subduction, whereas the shorter Cyprian Arc is subjected to subduction, collision and transcurrent tectonic processes.
DE: 8150 Plate boundary--general (3040)
DE: 8155 Plate motions--general
DE: 8158 Plate motions--present and recent (3040)
DE: 1206 Crustal movements--interplate (8155)
DE: 1242 Seismic deformations (7205)
SC: Tectonophysics [T]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting