Active tectonics of southern margin of Eastern Black Sea basin in the light of tectonic geomorphology and dating of marine terrace

This study attempts to describe the neotectonic setting of the Eastern Pontides that uplifting along the southern edge of the eastern Black Sea basin. Here, I present Plio-Quaternary units that are exposed in the Eastern Pontides (mapped at 1/25000 scale) and the stratigraphic, structural, tectonic geomorphologic and geochronological data sets obtained from the units. Tectonic geomorphologic data indicate that the Eastern Pontides are in an asymmetric topography and the activities of the fault-controlled mountain front are particularly high relative to each other. In the morphometric analysis, the region was found to be uplifting more than 0.5 mm per year within a transpressional zone. According to the structural and kinematic data, the NE-SW, NW-SE, and E-W trending strike-slip and normal/oblique faults are dominant in the Eastern Pontides. The faults that control the coastal area, which are normal faults/oblique faults, have an en-echelon geometry. These faults were described for the first time and I name them as an East Black Sea Fault in this study. When the findings are interpreted together with previous geophysical studies, it was determined that the mechanism of the uplift of the Eastern Pontides is actively influenced by the Black Sea Fault and Borjomi-Kazbegi reverse faults. Geochronologic data shows that the marine terraces, one of the most important signs of sea level changes in the Eastern Pontides, deposit at three different sedimentation periods and that the sedimentation rates range from 3 cm/1000 yr to 25 cm/1000 yr. In conclusion, we deciphered that it is likely that this region has been remarkably tectonically active latest Pleistocene to earlier Holocene (78 ka).