Investigation of the Fethiye-Marmaris Bay using Multi-beam Bathymetric and Seismic Reflection Data

Multi-beam bathymetric and seismic reflection data from Fethiye-Marmaris Bay at the SW corner of the Anatolia are interpreted to determine morphological features in the bay. This area connects the Pliny Trench, which constitutes the eastern portion of the subduction zone between the African and Eurasian plates in the eastern Mediterranean with the Fethiye-Burdur Fault Zone in the Anatolia. On bathymetric data, a very narrow shelf of the Anatolian coast, a sub-marine plain between the Rhodes Island and Marmaris Bay, and a large canyon connecting the abyssal floor of the Rhodes Basin with the Fethiye Bay are observed. Of these, the submarine plain and the canyon were named here as Marmaris Plain and Fethiye Canyon respectively. Several active and inactive faults are seen in the study area. Inactive faults with normal character developed a buried basin beneath the Marmaris Plain, called as Marmaris Basin. Active faults with strike-slip character are mapped in NE-SW direction in Marmaris Plain and in Fethiye Canyon. Character of these faults are correlated with transtensional left-lateral Fethiye-Burdur Fault Zone on land and compressional character of the trenches in the Rhodes Basin and its vicinity.Several active channels and submarine landslides are also mapped in the study area.