Was the Formation of the North Anatolian Fault Influenced by the Aegean Extension?

The North Anatolian Fault (NAF), one of the most prominent plate boundary continental fault systems on Earth, facilitates the westward movement of the Anatolian microplate into the Aegean region. The temporal and spatial evolution of the NAF is important for understanding the mechanism of escape tectonics during plate interaction in active orogenic regions. The driving force(s) behind the movement of the NAF and the time period over which this occurred remain controversial. Our U–Pb and K–Ar dating of syntectonic minerals shows that a predecessor faulting initiated as early as ~40 Ma due to shortening along the Neo-Tethyan suture zone. Fault reactivations occurred at ~20 and 10 Ma synchronously in eastern and western Anatolia, suggesting that the NAF already existed by ~20 Ma. Our data also show that the westward motion of Anatolia was not only controlled by the Arabia–Eurasia collision in eastern Anatolia, but also by Aegean extension.