Varto and the surrounding region have important geothermal fields, developing in strike-slip tectonic setting in East Anatolia, which resulted from the collision of the Arabian and Eurasian plates. The main structural elements in the area are the NE-trending sinistral and NW-trending dextral strike-slip fault segments and N-S trending extension zones. In order to determine fault-controlled geothermal circulation, it is very important to fully characterize the structural elements in these complex environments. The widely distributed volcanic rocks have fracture and crack systems that play an important role in surface infiltration, geothermal fluid, and groundwater circulation. | Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences Turkish J Earth Sci 2021 30 1076-1095 http earth TÜBİTAK Research Article doi yer-2106-13 Structural controls and hydrogeochemical properties of geothermal fields in the Varto region East Anatolia 1 2 3 Taygun UZELLİ Mehmet Furkan ŞENER İskender DÖLEK 4 5 6 Alper BABA Hasan SÖZBİLİR Ramazan Kadir DİRİK 1 Geothermal Energy Research and Application Center İzmir Institute of Technology İzmir Turkey 2 İzmir Bakırçay University Department of Geography İzmir Turkey 3 Muş Alparslan University Disaster Management Application and Research Center Muş Turkey 4 Department of International Water Resources Faculty of Engineering İzmir Institute of Technology İzmir Turkey 5 Department of Geological Engineering Dokuz Eylül University İzmir Turkey 6 Department of Geological Engineering Hacettepe University Ankara Turkey Received Accepted Published Online Final Version Abstract Varto and the surrounding region have important geothermal fields developing in strike-slip tectonic setting in East Anatolia which resulted from the collision of the Arabian and Eurasian plates. The main structural elements in the area are the NE-trending sinistral and NW-trending dextral strike-slip fault segments and N-S trending extension zones. In order to determine fault-controlled geothermal circulation it is very important to fully characterize the structural elements in these complex environments. The widely distributed volcanic rocks have fracture and crack systems that play an important role in surface infiltration geothermal fluid and groundwater circulation. Especially in areas where the fault segments intersect hot springs outlets and natural resources easily come to the surface. In order to understand the flow paths of geothermal fluid along the faults in these geothermal systems it is necessary to determine the stress state of the faults and to map the distribution of the structural elements. .
