The Hazar pull-apart along the East Anatolian Fault: Structure and active deformation

The Hazar lake occupies 20 km long, 5 km wide, 200 m deep pull-apart basin along the East Anatolian strike-slip Fault, which accommodates -together with the North Anatolian Faultthe westward extrusion of the Anatolian block. Located within 100 km of at least three major dams on the Euphrates-Tigris river system, it is a major structure along the East Anatolian Fault and locus of two historical earthquakes of magnitude 7.1 and 6.7 in 1874 and 1875 respectively. This poorly studied lake (only approximate bathymetric map, no geophysical survey, or sedimentological information) was the focus in summer 2007 of a multidisciplinary study in order to constrain its structure and sedimentation, and to propose a coherent scenario of the 1874-1875 earthquake sequence.