The structural elements and tectonics of the Lake Van basin (Eastern Anatolia) from multi-channel seismic reflection profiles

摘要

This study analyzed multi-channel seismic reflection data from Lake Van, Eastern Anatolia, to provide key information on the structural elements, deformational patterns and overall tectonic structure of the Lake Van basin. The seismic data reveal three subbasins (the Tatvan, northern and Ahlat subbasins) separated by structural ridges (the northern and Ahlat ridges). The Tatvan basin is a tilted wedge-block in the west, it is a relatively undeformed and flat-lying deep basin, forming a typical example of strike-slip sedimentation. Seismic sections reveal that the deeper sedimentary sections of the Tatvan basin are locally folded, gently in the south and more intensely further north, suggesting a probable gravitational "wedge-block" instability, oblique to the northern margin. The northern subbasin, bounded by normal oblique faults, forms a basin-margin graben structure that is elongated in a northeast-southwest direction. The east-west trending Ahlat ridge forms a fault-wedged sedimentary ridge and appears to offset by reverse oblique faults forming as a push-up rhomb horst structure. The Ahlat subbasin is a fault wedged trough fill that is elongated in the west-east direction and appears as a horst-foot graben formed by the normal oblique faults. The northeast-southwest directed northern ridge is a faulted crestal terrace of a sublacustrine basement block. Its step-like morphology, in response to the downfaulting of the Tatvan basin, as well as its backthrusted appearance, indicates the normal oblique nature of the bounding faults.