Active tectonics and kinematics of Fethiye-G & ouml;cek Bay, SW Turkey: Insight about the eastern edge of Pliny-Strabo Trenches

Pliny-Strabo Trench (PST)is a Subduction Transform Edge Propagator (STEP) fault developed at the northern edge of the African oceanic lithosphere connecting the Aegean and Cyprian trenches in the eastern Mediterra-nean. Recent studies have demonstrated that the PST terminates close to Turkish Border and links to the Cyprian trench east of Rhodes and south of Fethiye-Gocek Bay. However, it is also claimed that the PST extends into SW Anatolia along a sinistral transtensional shear zone, so-called Fethiye-Burdur Fault Zone (FBFZ) implying that a lithospheric tear in the downgoing plate extends into the over-riding plate, although, this is kinematically almost impossible since full mechanical coupling between down going and the over-riding plate is necessary. To test this hypothesis and understand the kinematics of the transition zone between PST and Cyprian trench we have conducted a rigorous paleostress inversion study combined with interpretation of 2D seismic data of which 228 km total length obtained from Fethiye-Gocek Bay