Crustal isostatic rebound in the lake Urmia area due to its desiccation

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

University of Tabriz

Abstract

Extended abstract
Introduction
Lake Urmia is located in the northwestern of Iran. The geographic coordinates of this lake is between 37⁰ 03' to 38⁰ 17' North and 44⁰ 59' to 45⁰ 56' East. Lake Urmia is largest and saltiest permanent lake in Iran with a surface area of approximately 6000 km2, a length of 120 to 150 km, a width of 20 to 50 km, a maximum depth of 13 m, and Average depth of 6 m. Based on this, its average volume is estimated between 12 to 33 Milliard tones in times of aridity and wateriness, respectively. In recent years, environmental crisis and drying of about 85 percent of Lake Urmia water's, is considered one of the biggest geological hazards in the Azerbaijan region of Iran. Drying of Lake Urmia has been associated with a vast unloading on the surface of the crust. In this research, uplifting of the earth's crust (Isostatic Rebound) as a result of unloading due to the drying of Lake Urmia and the hazards caused by it have been investigated.
Method
 In this research, uplift rate of crust (Isostatic Rebound)  is calculated based on:

Unloading as a consequence of the Lake Urmia desiccation during 22 years (from 1375 to 1396)
Density of fresh water (because of deposition of soluble and insoluble materials in water at the bottom of the lake)
Regional isostasy (flexural isostasy)

and the hazards of isostatic rebound has been investigated.
Results
In this study, first the maximum amount flexure or depression due to the initial loading of water and its required parameters is estimated and then the amount of isostatic rebound (uplift) after loading from the surface of Lake Urmia as the result of decreasing water level and related parameters and the hazards of isostatic rebound has been investigated.
Conclusions  
According to the estimates of this research, following the surface unloading of the lake Urmia, there are 85 mm uplift possibility, to balance the isostatic rebound. This uplift could be sudden in 22 years (0.39 cm/year) that, for confirmation, more comprehensive studies with sufficient data are needed. In this study, due to the lack or absence of sufficient data and the cost of data preparation and lack of time was not possible.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Ministry of the Sciences, Research and Technology of Iran and the University of Tabriz.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

References
Persian References:
-Abolghasem, A.M., Hatam chavari, Y. and Djamour,Y., 2009. Determining the status of isostasy in Iran, Journal of Surveying, No. 102.
-Aryamanesh, M., 2012. Investigating the role of water reduction in Lake Urmia in earthquakes in Azerbaijan, National Congress Planning the Pathology of Earthquake Effects, Payame Noor University, East Azarbaijan, Heris.
-Aghanabati, A., 2013. Geology of Iran, Geological Survey & Mineral Explorations of Iran, 375 p.
-Balali Oskooi, F., 2016. The effect of sudden dewatering of Lake Urmia on the occurrence of successive earthquakes in Khoy (Earthquakes time 2016 July 10), First International Conference On Water, Environment and Sustainable Development, University of Mohaghe Ardabili.
-Ghassemi, M.R., 1999. Fundamentals of structural geology, Geological Survey & Mineral Explorations of Iran, 320 p.
-Hanifi, Z., 2018. Study the tectonic formation mechanism of Urmia lake and research the probable induced earthquakes, Master's thesis, Faculty of Natural sciences, Tabriz University.
-Hanif, Z., Zamani, G.B. and Asghari-Kaljahi, E., 2018. The Research of b-value variations due to water loss of Lake Urmia, The 21 Symposium of Geological Society of Iran and The 11 Geological National Conference of Payame Noor University.
-Kearey, P.,  Klepeis, K.A. and Vine., F.J., 2009. Global Tectonics, third edition, Wiley–Blackwell, Hoboken, New Jersey., 482 p.
-Shahrabi, M., 1994. Explanatory text of the Urumiyeh quadrangle map 1:250000., Geol Surv of Iran.
-Zare, M., 2014. Proceedings of the seminar, past, present and future of Lake Urmia, The Academy of Sciences Islamic Republic of Iran.  
 
English References:
-Ballato, P., Nwaczyk, N., Landgraf, A., Strecker, M., Friedrich, A. and Tabatabaei, S., 2008. Tectonic control on sedimentary facies pattern and sediment accumulation rates in the Miocene foreland basin of the southern Alborz mountains, Northern Iran, Tectonics, doi.org/10.1029/2008TC002278.
-Dewey, J.F., Hempton, M.R., Kidd, W.S.F., Saroglu, F. and Sengör, A.M.C., 1986. Shortening of continental lithosphere: the neotectonics of Eastern Anatolia a young collision zone, in Collision Tectonics (edited by M.P. Coward and A.C. Ries), Geological Society Special Publication, v. 19, p. 3-36.
-Kelts, K. and Shahrabi, M., 1986. Holocene sedimentology of hypersaline Lake urmia, Nortwestern Iran, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 54 p.
-Kiamehr, R. and Sjoberg, L.E., 2005. Effect of the SRTM global DEM on the determination of a high-resolution geoid model: a case study in Iran, Journal of Geodesy, v. 79, p. 540-551.
-McGuire, B., 2013. Waking the Giant: How a Changing Climate Triggers Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Volcanoes, Oxford University Press, 320 p.
-Su, Z., Wang, Er-C., Hu, Jyr-C., Talebian, M. and Karimzadeh, S., 2016. Quantifying the Termination Mechanism Along the North Tabriz-North Mishu Fault Zone of Northwestern Iran via Small Baseline PS-InSAR and GPS Decomposition, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, v. 10, p. 130-144.
-Turcotte, D.L. and Schubert, G., 1982. Geodynamics-Applications of Continuum Physics to Geological Problems, 450 p.
-Vanicek, P. and Christou, N.T., 1993. Geoid and its Geophysical Interpretations.
-Whidden, K.M., Hansen, K., Timothy, M., Boltz, M.S., Pankow, K.L. and Koper, K.D., 2014. Natural reservoirs and triggered seismicity: a study of two northern Utah Lakes. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2014.
-Weber, G. and Zomorrodian, H., 1988. Regional geopotential model improvement for the regional Iranian geoid determination, Bulletin Géodésique, v. 62, p. 125-141.
Researches in Earth Sciences
Volume 12, Issue 3 - Serial Number 47
September 2021
Pages 58-67

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics