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This paper examines how active faulting in the Turkey‐Iran‐Caucasus region accommodates the Arabia‐Eurasia collision and the velocity field observed by GPS. The overall shortening across the zone is, in general, spatially separated (“partitioned”) into right‐lateral strike slip in the Turkish‐Iranian Plateau and thrusting in the Greater Caucasus. A band of counterclockwise rotating NW‐SE right‐lateral strike‐slip faults accommodates a NW‐SE gradient in NE directed velocity (relative to Eurasia) between the Black and Caspian seas. A NNW‐SSE band of previously unrecognized oblique normal faults is present on the Turkey‐Iran border. We estimate the offsets on faults from geomorphological features and show that these offsets can be achieved in 5 ± 2 Ma at present rates. This implies a reorganization of deformation in the collision zone at that time, after the initial collision at ∼12 Ma, probably in response to mantle‐induced dynamic uplift.
Copley et al. (Fri,) studied this question.