The Sürgü Fault Zone (Sürgü Fay Zonu) is a major
fault zone in south-central Anatolia. It contains the Sürgü fault. Rupture on this fault caused the second major (M>7) earthquake during the
2023 Gaziantep-KahramanmaraÅŸ earthquakes that started in February 2023.
The fault zone extends (west to east) from
Göksun
Göksun (, or , ''Koukousós''; or ; ) is a municipality and district of Kahramanmaraş Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,942 km2, and its population is 50,676 (2022). It is near one of the sources of the Ceyhan River (ancient Pyramos), in the ...
to
Çelikhan
Çelikhan () is a town of Adıyaman Province, Turkey. It is the seat of Çelikhan District.[İlà ...]
where it merges into the
East Anatolian Fault
The East Anatolian Fault (EAF; ) is a ~700 km long major strike-slip fault zone running from eastern to south-central Turkey. It forms the transform type tectonic boundary between the Anatolian sub-plate and the northward-moving Arabian ...
.
It is a "major fault recognized in the field" of geosciences and "was known to be capable of very significant earthquakes" such as in 1544 and 1986. As of 2023 it has been estimated to have an activated length of about .
During the
2023 Gaziantep-Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, the Sürgü Fault experienced a major earthquake of 7.6, which was followed by many aftershocks along the active length of the faultline.
References
Sources
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Strike-slip faults
Seismic faults of Turkey
Supershear earthquakes
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