Evidence of active faulting in the Azarshahr-Tabriz fault zone of northwestern Iran

نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی‌

نویسندگان

1 Ph.D. student, Department of Seismology, Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Professor, Department of Seismology, Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

3 M.Sc., Department of Seismology, Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

چکیده

The 1641 Dehkhwargan-Tabriz earthquake (Ms 6.8) is the only destructive earthquake to have occurred in Azarshahr-Khosrowshahr-Osku region of northwestern Iran. Ambiguities regarding the causative fault of this earthquake were a motivation to someway declare its mechanism. In this study, by conducting a field survey in an area between Tabriz and Azarshahr, and use of satellite imagery and aerial photographs, we provide geologic and geomorphic indications to identify the poorly known Azarshahr-Tabriz fault zone (ATF), which passes through the meizoseismal region of the 1641 earthquake. Our observations highlight the presence of a sinistral active fault zone that extends ~40 km in length from south of Tabriz to the northeast and north of Azarshahr to the southwest. The ATF is a structural assemblage of several fault strands with a variety of extensional and compressional mesoscale structures. We estimated slip rates ranging from ~0.01 mm yr−1 to <1 mm yr−1, based on drainage offset measurements, which demonstrate a relatively stable tectonic environment located immediately south of the well-known seismically active dextral North Tabriz fault.

کلیدواژه‌ها

موضوعات


عنوان مقاله [English]

Evidence of active faulting in the Azarshahr-Tabriz fault zone of northwestern Iran

نویسندگان [English]

  • Saeid Rahimzadeh 1
  • Noorbakhsh Mirzaei 2
  • Yasamin Moshasha 3
1 Ph.D. student, Department of Seismology, Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 Professor, Department of Seismology, Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
3 M.Sc., Department of Seismology, Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
چکیده [English]

The 1641 Dehkhwargan-Tabriz earthquake (Ms 6.8) is the only destructive earthquake to have occurred in Azarshahr-Khosrowshahr-Osku region of northwestern Iran. Ambiguities regarding the causative fault of this earthquake were a motivation to someway declare its mechanism. In this study, by conducting a field survey in an area between Tabriz and Azarshahr, and use of satellite imagery and aerial photographs, we provide geologic and geomorphic indications to identify the poorly known Azarshahr-Tabriz fault zone (ATF), which passes through the meizoseismal region of the 1641 earthquake. Our observations highlight the presence of a sinistral active fault zone that extends ~40 km in length from south of Tabriz to the northeast and north of Azarshahr to the southwest. The ATF is a structural assemblage of several fault strands with a variety of extensional and compressional mesoscale structures. We estimated slip rates ranging from ~0.01 mm yr−1 to <1 mm yr−1, based on drainage offset measurements, which demonstrate a relatively stable tectonic environment located immediately south of the well-known seismically active dextral North Tabriz fault.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • Azarshahr-Tabriz fault zone
  • Northwestern Iran
  • Osku
  • seismogenic fault
  • seismic hazard
  • transtension structure
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