BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The North Anatolian fault, on which destructive earthqukes frequently occur, is a 1300 km long, 10 – 100 m wide right lateral active fault lying between Karlıova in the east and Gulf of Saros in the west. The fault, together with the East Anatolian fault, forms the most active elements of the tectonic structure of the Anatolia. Starting from 1939 Erzincan earthquake, a migration of earthquakes on the fault was observed. The 1999 earthquake formed the latest chain of this migration, the penultimate being the 1967 Adapazarı earthquake.
The Active Fault Map of Turkey (Saroglu, F., Emre,O and Kuscu,I.,1992) shows the active faults in the country, at a scale of 1:1 000 000, considering the faults that have moved or likely to move since Quaternary are active since no more detailed classification is not made till now. In context of a marine geology and geophysics project, supported by TUBITAK and carried out by MTA, Cambridge University and İstanbul Technical University, submarine faults in Sea of Marmara were mapped. The map is based on 1500 km seismic profiles recorded on board MTA Sismik-1 research vessel. Altthough corrections and datailed analyses needed, this preliminary map was brought under light upon this emergency case, to the attention of earth scientists.
