A review of 20 years (1999–2019) of Turkish–French collaboration in marine geoscience research in the Sea of Marmara

Abstract

This paper retraces the history and main achievements of the ongoing Turkish-French collaboration in marine geoscience research in the Sea of Marmara, which was initiated in the aftermath of the 1999, Izmit and Duzce earthquakes. The collaboration resulted in nine large oceanographic cruises along with six recovery operations involving diverse vessels, and in the participation in two major EU-funded programmes (ESONET-NoE and MARSITE) and to one bilateral project, e.g. the MAREGAMI Project, co-funded by TUBITAK and ANR (the Turkish and French national funding agencies for research, respectively). In this paper, we review the major scientific contributions on the tectonic evolution of the North-Anatolian Fault in the Marmara Region; on the relationships between faulting, seismicity, fluids and ecosystems; and on paleo-seismology and paleo-oceanography in the Sea of Marmara.Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBİTAK) initiated the Turkish Marine Programme, coordinated by Naci Görur and funded by the State Planning Organization of Turkey (DPT). The programme had access to the research vessels of Mineral Research and Exploration Directorate of Turkey (MTA) and Turkish Naval Forces-Office of Navigation, Hydrography and Oceanography (SHOD). The programme acquired 2200 km of multi-channel seismic reflection lines, with MTA's R/V Sismik-1 (see review in Imren et al. 2001, p. 145). Two different groups, from Istanbul Technical University (ITU) and from the University of Cambridge, respectively, proposed two different tectonic interpretations, reflecting the contrasting views that prevailed at that time, based on land observations. Okay et al. ( ) supported Pinar's (1943 early idea of a single through-going fault, later called the "Main Marmara Fault" (MMF; Le , bisecting the Gulf of Izmit and the three Mar-mara deeps, in agreement with the view of Şengör (1979) and Şengör et al. (1985). In contrast, Parke et al. (1999) sup-ported the view depicting the Sea of Marmara as a rift basin with en echelon faulting and little or no strike-slip fault in the central Marmara Sea (e.g. Armijo et al. 1999). In Febru-ary 1999, multibeam bathymetric data were collected and sediment pore fluids were sampled from the deep Marmara basins during R/V Meteor cruise 44 (Halbach et al. 2000), identifying methane anomalies, suggesting the existence of an active hydrological system associated with the submarine fault system.

Subaqueous fault scarps of the North Anatolian Fault in the Gulf of Saros (NE Aegean); where is the western limit of the 1912 Mürefte-Şarköy earthquake rupture?

“…589 Armijo et al 2005;McHugh et al 2006;Gasperini et al 2011aGasperini et al , 2018Gasperini et al , 2021Géli et al 2021;Ribot et al 2021;Uc ¸arkus ¸et al 2011;Yakupoglu et al 2019).…”