Büyük Menderes Graben Explained

The Büyük Menderes Graben is an active rift basin in western Turkey, part of the Western Anatolian Extension Zone.^[1] It is about 140 km long and 2.5–14 km wide with a west–east trend.^[2] It was formed during the early Miocene and remains active, as shown by historical earthquakes, the largest of which was the M7.5 1653 East Smyrna earthquake.^[1] Another event, the 1899 Aydın–Denizli earthquake, also occurred on a fault associated with the graben.^[3] The graben forms a rift valley, through which the Büyük Menderes River drains into the Aegean Sea.

Notes and References

1. An Evaluation of Earthquake Hazard Potential for Different Regions in Western Anatolia Using the Historical and Instrumental Earthquake Data . Bayrak Y. . Bayrak E. . amp . Pure and Applied Geophysics . 2012 . 169 . 10 . 1859–1873 . 10.1007/s00024-011-0439-3.
2. Progressive development of the Büyük Menderes Graben based on new data, western Turkey . Gürer Ö. . Sarica-Filoreau N. . Özburan M. . Sangu E. . Dogan B. . Geological Magazine . 2009 . 146 . 5 . 652–673 . 10.1017/S0016756809006359.
3. Kumsar . Halil . Aydan . Ömer . Şimşek . Celal . D’Andria . Francesco . Historical earthquakes that damaged Hierapolis and Laodikeia antique cities and their implications for earthquake potential of Denizli basin in western Turkey . Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment . 2016 . 75 . 519–536 . 10.1007/s10064-015-0791-0 .