Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES, cilt.112, sa.7, ss.1891-1900, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
The historical and instrumental seismicity records along the continental transform faults in the Eastern Mediterranean region represent periodicities within centennial scales. Half a century ago, it was suggested that the spatiotemporal sequences of millennial-scale historical seismicity along the interplate structures represent seismicity switching between the North Anatolian Fault Zone and the East Anatolian Fault Zone. However, many individual historical seismicity catalogs published in the last decade indicate a comparable number of earthquakes in the North Anatolian and Dead Sea fault zones, but not in the East Anatolian Fault Zone. Seismicity records of the instrumental period indicate that the North Anatolian Fault Zone is currently at its peak level of activity. On the other hand, it is well known from the historical records that the seismically quiescent instrumental period of the Dead Sea Fault Zone is not representative of its potential. The comparison of various individual historical earthquake catalogs implies a successive activity for the North Anatolian and Dead Sea fault zones, with a discernible time delay. This observation lends supports to elastic coupling between these continental transform faults, resulting from the direct interaction between the movements of the Arabian and Anatolian plates. The evaluation of both historical and instrumental periods together reveals a possibility to speculate that the Dead Sea Fault Zone could enter a more active phase in the near future, potentially exhibiting a time lag in relation to the activity observed in the North Anatolian Fault Zone.