REPRODUCING THE VELOCITY AND STRESS-FIELDS IN THE AEGEAN REGION

Recent satellite geodetic measurements help to clearly define the velo city field in the Aegean-Anatolian area. The velocity field can be bro adly characterized by anticlockwise rotation of this region relative t o Eurasia, around a pole located at Lat. 32.73, Long. 32.03, north of the Egyptian shoreline. Studies of the fault kinematics in the region also provide information on the time evolution of the stress field. In this work, we model deformation in the Aegean-Anatolian region to bet ter understand the tectonic origin of the observed stress and velocity fields. We found that the observed deformation pattern can be well re produced by imposing simple boundary conditions including: (1) northwa rd displacement of the Arabian plate, (2) locking of eastward motion i n northwestern Greece and (3) suction force at the Hellenic trench. Th e observed variation in the stress field occurred at 0.9 Ma can be par tially explained by a change in the activity of the North Anatolian fa ult.