The southern part of the Western Anatolia Extensional Province is governed by E-W-trending horst-graben systems and NW-SE-oriented active faults. The NW-striking Yatağan Fault is characterised by an almost pure normal sense of motion with a minor dextral strike slip component. Although the settlements within the area have been affected by several earthquake events since ancient times (~2000 BCE), the earthquake potential and history of the Yatağan Fault has remained unknown until a few years ago. Considering the growing dense population within the area, paleoseismology studies were conducted in order to illuminate the historical earthquake activity on the Yatağan Fault. | Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences Turkish J Earth Sci 2021 30 161-181 http earth TÜBİTAK Research Article doi yer-2006-23 Earthquake history of the Yatağan Fault Muğla SW Turkey implications for regional seismic hazard assessment and paleoseismology in extensional provinces Mehran BASMENJI1 Hüsnü Serdar AKYÜZ1 Erdem KIRKAN1 Murat Ersen AKSOY2 Gülsen UÇARKUŞ1 Nurettin YAKUPOĞLU1 1 Department of Geological Engineering Faculty of Mines İstanbul Technical University İstanbul Turkey 2 Department of Geological Engineering Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University Muğla Turkey Received Accepted Published Online Final Version Abstract The southern part of the Western Anatolia Extensional Province is governed by E-W-trending horst-graben systems and NW-SE-oriented active faults. The NW-striking Yatağan Fault is characterised by an almost pure normal sense of motion with a minor dextral strike slip component. Although the settlements within the area have been affected by several earthquake events since ancient times 2000 BCE the earthquake potential and history of the Yatağan Fault has remained unknown until a few years ago. Considering the growing dense population within the area paleoseismology studies were conducted in order to illuminate the historical earthquake activity on the Yatağan Fault. Two trenches were excavated on the fault. Structural and stratigraphic evidence from the both trenches indicated an event horizon of a paleo-earthquake that was dated between 366 and 160 BCE and 342 131 CE. This event horizon most probably reflected the evidence of the latest large earthquake rupture on the Yatağan Fault. Key words Yatağan Fault paleoseismology active tectonics western Anatolia 1. Introduction were formed by shallow creeps Radbruch-Hall 1978 Var- Paleoseismology is a powerful technique to study the nes et al. 1989 McCalpin and Hart 2002 or by sudden earthquake history and potential of active faults. Previous .
