Abstract
The Çaldıran Fault having a character of strike slip fault with a dextral slip is one of the major active faults in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The destructive earthquake produced by the fault on November 24, 1976 caused significant damage and loss of life, and created a surface rupture of 50-55 km. In this study carried out on the basis of surface deformation and paleoseismology around the Çaldıran settlement, it was determined that there are fault lines where the surface ruptures occurred in the last earthquake are still protected. The studies of surface investigation and paleoseismological trenching show that there were at least three earthquakes (events) forming surface rupture (M≥7) in the region during the Holocene. Around Çaldıran, 1.5 m right lateral and 30-40 cm vertical ofsetts were measured in the last earthquake. On the other hand, it was determined that the recurrence interval for major earthquakes of 280 years, the short-term horizontal slip rate of 5.36 mm/yr-1 and vertical slip rate of 1.43 mm/yr-1 considering that the historical earthquake that occurred in the area of Çaldıran district in 1696 [18] was produced by the Çaldıran Fault.