Late Cenozoic stress states around the Bolu Basin along the North Anatolian Fault, NW Turkey

The inversion of slip vectors measured on fault planes indicates that a strike-slip stress regime with consistent NW- and NE-trending σHmax(σ1)andσHmin(σ3) axes is dominant. Stress ratio (R) values provided by inversion of slip vectors measured on both major and minor faults and field observations show significant variations of principal stress magnitudes within the strike-slip stress regime resulting in older transpression to younger transtension. These two stress states, producing dextral displacement along NAF, are coaxial with a consistent NE-trending σ3 axis. The earthquake focal mechanism inversions confirm that the transtensional stress regime has continued into recent times, having identical horizontal stress axis directions, characterized by NW and NE-trending σ1 and σ3 axes, respectively. A locally consistent NE-trending extensional, normal faulting regime is also seen in the Bolu Basin. The stress-tensor change within the strike-slip stress regime can be explained by variations in horizontal stress magnitudes that probably occurred in Quaternary times as a result of the westward extrusion of the Anatolian block.