1, Garcia-Moreno, D. 1

04.06.01. Earthquake faults: properties and evolution 27 04.07.04. Plate boundaries, motion, and tectonics 28 29 2 Abstract 30 The North Anatolian Fault is a ~1200 km long right-lateral strike-slip fault that forms the 31 northern boundary of the Anatolian plate. A damaging sequence of earthquakes ruptured 32 almost the entire fault in the twentieth century. This study adds to the growing number of 33 paleoseismic investigations on the 350 km long 1939 Erzincan earthquake rupture 34 segment, which is toward the eastern end of the North Anatolian Fault in Turkey. Using 35 three paleoseismic trenches located along about 2km of the principal fault strand, this 36 study determines the timing of five earthquakes prior to the 1939 earthquake. The first 37 three earthquakes are correlated to historical earthquakes in A.D. 1668, 1254, 499 and 38 two further events were identified at 881 – 673 B.C. and 1406 – 1291 B.C. (2σ age 39 ranges). By comparing the earthquake timing determined in this study to the results of 4