Pure dip-slip along the Tuz Gölü Fault Zone accommodates east-west extension of Central Anatolia

Kinematic constraints on faults with slow slip rates often diverge, obscuring their neotectonic significance and seismic hazards. The Tuz G & ouml;l & uuml; Fault Zone (TGFZ) is a major slow-moving fault accommodating intraplate deformation within Central Anatolia, for which long-term geological and short-term geodetic deformation rates disagree. Here, the Pleistocene-Recent kinematic evolution of the TGFZ is determined by dating dissected lava flows of the Hasanda & gbreve; stratocone. Combined zircon U-Th and (U-Th)/He ages indicate emplacement between 151 +/- 6 ka and 38.8 +/- 2.0 ka (2 sigma uncertainties). Restoring flow levees as tie points across fault scarps yields vertical displacement rates of 0.90 +/- 0.06 to 1.23 +/- 0.08 mm/a for the most reliable projections, whereas in contrast to previous notions only negligible dextral strike slip at 0.01 +/- 0.08 to 0.06 +/- 0.08 mm/a is permitted. Predominantly normal faulting without a major strike-slip component for the TGFZ supports ongoing east-west extension without the requirement for shearing due to north-south shortening of Central Anatolia between its bounding megashears as it gradually escapes westward.