Introduction — Anatolian sub‑plate

The Anatolian plate is a continental tectonic plate that underlies most of the Asian portion of Turkey (Anatolia) and constitutes the principal crustal element of the Anatolian Peninsula (Asia Minor). Its northern margin is defined by a major transform boundary with the Eurasian plate along the North Anatolian Fault zone (NAFZ), a highly active strike‑slip system that has hosted many of the region’s largest historic earthquakes (e.g., the 1939 Erzincan event). To the east, the East Anatolian Fault forms a left‑lateral transform boundary with the Arabian plate and accommodates horizontal slip between Arabia and Anatolia; the catastrophic 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes occurred on this fault system.

Along the southern and southwestern margins the Anatolian plate encounters the African plate at a convergent boundary, where subduction beneath the Anatolian margin at the Hellenic and Cyprus arcs produces compressive deformation within both oceanic and adjacent continental crust. Contemporary kinematic and geodetic (GPS) studies demonstrate that Anatolia is mechanically decoupled from Eurasia and that both the Anatolian and Arabian plates are undergoing counterclockwise rotation. GPS velocity fields show increasing westward/southwestward speeds toward the Hellenic and Cyprus trenches, with Anatolia translating faster than Arabia in those directions.

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The spatial pattern of velocities, together with the lack of significant crustal shortening within Anatolia perpendicular to Arabian convergence, indicates that slab rollback of the African plate and its associated trench‑rollback suction—rather than direct push from Arabia—are the primary drivers of Anatolia’s west/southwest translation and counterclockwise rotation. Finally, although earlier models treated the Aegean crust as part of a single rotating Anatolian block, more recent measurements reveal distinct kinematics for the Aegean, which is now regarded as a separate tectonic entity.