The North Anatolian Fault (NAF) is one of the most active intracontinental strike-slip fault systems worldwide and represents a major seismic hazard because it crosses densely populated regions. Knowledge of its seismic behavior derives from historical seismology and paleoseismology, with records extending back to Antiquity. Over the past three decades, paleoseismology has become a key approach for identifying past earthquakes and constraining recurrence intervals along the fault. While trenching provides direct evidence of surface ruptures, lacustrine and marine sediment cores offer complementary, continuous long-term records of seismic activity. Here we synthesize all paleoseismological data published between 1991 and 2025 CE for the western NAF, considering for the first time all three main fault branches: North, Middle, and South ones. We examine three primary factors controlling the record of earthquake-generated deposits in sediments, sedimentation rate (SR) and peak ground acceleration/velocity (PGA/PGV). Our results show that lacustrine environments provide a clear framework for interpreting earthquake records. In contrast, marine records display greater complexity: although many recorded events correspond to high median PGA/PGV values, no systematic relationship with SR is observed, and several earthquakes with similarly high median PGA/PGV values leave no identifiable sedimentary imprint. Despite these limitations, integrating trench, lacustrine, and marine records provides new constraints on the spatio-temporal organization of rupture along the NAF system. This synthesis refines fault segmentation, particularly along the northern branch, where western and eastern segments show long ruptures and frequent Mw > 7 earthquakes, whereas the central Marmara segment is dominated by shorter ruptures and distinct temporal clustering patterns at the regional scale. • 34 years of paleoseismic data (trenches, lacustrine and marine sediment cores) integrated for the western part of the North Anatolian Fault. • Comparative analysis of earthquake-triggered turbidites in lacustrine vs. marine settings. • Assessment of SR, PGA, and PGV as controls on seismic recording in sediment cores. • Sedimentation rate is key for earthquake records in lakes, more complex in marine settings. • Integrated multi-proxy data reveals a major seismic gap on the western MNAF since 1065 CE.
Gastineau et al. (Fri,) studied this question.