No fewer than four major tectonic plates (Arabia, Eurasia, India, and Africa)
and one smaller tectonic block (Anatolia) are responsible for seismicity and
tectonics in the Middle East and surrounding region. Geologic development of
the region is a consequence of a number of first-order plate tectonic processes
that include subduction, large-scale transform faulting, compressional mountain
building and crustal extension.
Mountain
building in northern Pakistan and Afghanistan is the result of compressional
tectonics associated with collision of the India plate moving northwards at a
rate of 40 mm/yr with respect to the Eurasia plate. Continental thickening of
the northern and western edge of the India subcontinent has produced the
highest mountains in the world, including the Himalayan, Karakoram, Pamir and
Hindu Kush ranges. Earthquake activity and faulting found in this region, as
well as adjacent parts of Afghanistan and India, are due to collisional plate
tectonics.
Beneath the
Pamir-Hindu Kush Mountains of northern Afghanistan, earthquakes occur to depths
as great as 200 km as a result of remnant lithospheric subduction. Shallower
crustal earthquakes in the Pamir-Hindu Mountains occur primarily along the Main
Pamir Thrust and other active Quaternary faults, which accommodate much of the
region's crustal shortening. The western and eastern margins of the Main Pamir
Thrust display a combination of thrust and strike-slip mechanisms.
Along the
western margin of the Tibetan Plateau, in the vicinity of southeastern
Afghanistan and western Pakistan, the India plate translates obliquely relative
to the Eurasia plate, resulting in a complex fold-and-thrust belt known as the
Sulaiman Range. Faulting in this region includes strike-slip, reverse-slip and
oblique-slip motion and often results in shallow, destructive earthquakes. The
relatively fast moving left-lateral, strike-slip Chaman Fault system in
southeastern Afghanistan accommodates translational motion between the India
and Eurasia plates. In 1505, a segment of the Chaman Fault system near Kabul,
Afghanistan ruptured causing widespread destruction of Kabul and surrounding
villages. In the same region, the more recent 30 May 1935, M7.6 Quetta,
Pakistan earthquake, occurred within the Sulaiman Range, killing between 30,000
and 60,000 people.
Off the south
coast of Pakistan and southeast coast of Iran, the Makran trench is the
present-day surface expression of active subduction of the Arabia plate beneath
the continental Eurasia plate, which converge at a rate of approximately 20
mm/yr. Although the Makran subduction zone has a relatively slow convergence
rate, it has produced large devastating earthquakes and tsunamis. For example, the
November 27, 1945 M8.0 mega-thrust earthquake produced a tsunami within the
Gulf of Oman and Arabia Sea, killing over 4,000 people. Northwest of this
active subduction zone, collision of the Arabia and Eurasia plates forms the
approximately 1,500-km-long fold and thrust belt of the Zagros Mountains, which
crosses the whole of western Iran and extends into northeastern Iraq. Collision
of the Arabia and Eurasia plates also causes crustal shortening in the Alborz
Mountains and Kopet Dag in northern Iran. Eastern Iran experiences destructive
earthquakes that originate on both strike-slip and reverse faults. For example,
the 16 September 1978 M7.8 earthquake, along the southwest edge of the
Dasht-e-Lut Basin killed at least 15,000 people.
Along the
eastern margin of the Mediterranean region there is complex interaction between
the Africa, Arabia and Eurasia plates. The Red Sea Rift is a spreading center
between the Africa and Arabia plates, with a spreading rate of approximately
10mm/yr near its northern end, and 16mm/yr near its southern end (Chu, D. and
Gordon, R. G., 1998). Seismicity rate and size of earthquakes has been
relatively small along the spreading center, but the rifting process has
produced a series of volcanic systems across western Saudi Arabia.
Further north,
the Red Sea Rift terminates at the southern boundary of the Dead Sea Transform
Fault. The Dead Sea Transform is a strike-slip fault that accommodates
differential motion between the Africa and Arabia plates. Though both the
Africa plate, to the west, and the Arabia plate, to the east, are moving in a
NNE direction, the Arabia plate is moving slightly faster, resulting in the
left-lateral, strike-slip motion along this segment of the plate boundary.
Historically, earthquake activity along the Dead Sea Transform has been a
significant hazard in the densely populated Levant region (eastern
Mediterranean). For example, the November 1759 Near East earthquake is thought
to have killed somewhere between 2,000-20,000 people. The northern termination
of the Dead Sea Transform occurs within a complex tectonic region of southeast
Turkey, where interaction of the Africa and Arabia plates and the Anatolia
block occurs. This involves translational motion of the Anatolia Block
westwards, with a speed of approximately 25mm/yr with respect to Eurasia, in
order to accommodate closure of the Mediterranean basin.
The
right-lateral, strike-slip North Anatolia Fault, in northern Turkey,
accommodates much of the westwards motion between the Anatolia Block and Eurasia
Plate. Between 1939 and 1999, a series of devastating M7.0+ strike-slip
earthquakes propagated westwards along the North Anatolia Fault system. The
westernmost of these earthquakes was the 17th August 1999, M7.6 Izmit
earthquake, near the Sea of Marmara, killed approximately 17,000 people.
At the southern
edge of the Anatolia Block lies the east-west trending Cyprian Arc with
associated levels of moderate seismicity. The Cyprian Arc represents the
convergent boundary between the Anatolia Block to the north and the Africa
Plate to the south. The boundary is thought to join the East Anatolia Fault
zone in eastern Turkey; however no certain geometry or sense of relative motion
along the entire boundary is widely accepted.