The Impacts of the North Tabriz Fault on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the neighbor aquifer in the East of Tabriz City, Iran

The North Tabriz Fault (NTF) is the most prominent tectonic structure in the Northwest of Iran. The results of this study show that this fault has a major impact on hydrogeological conditions of the local aquifer. Plio-Quaternary volcanic ash and tuff layers constitute the only unconfined aquifer of this area which directly lies on Miocene red marl as aquifer bed rock. Northern part aquifer bed rock is placed in the higher level than the southern part. This could be the reason for the existence of the reverse dip-slip movement of fault in this area, which causes the northern part (hanging wall) trust over the southern part (footwall). Sharp differences in aquifer bed rock level at relatively low distances (less than 200 m), can be a sign of near-vertical slope of fault in this area. An obvious groundwater level differences which reaches to more than 8 meters, along with the apparent differences between groundwater qualities across the fault at a low distance (about 200 meters) show a barrier behavior of fault. Total depth of the southern part wells is four times compared to the northern parts. Total annual discharge of southern part wells is about eight times of northern parts. Total hardness and ions concentrations of groundwater samples shows that most of the northern part samples are not suitable for drinking purposes, but the southern part samples are suitable. Also, all of the northern part samples have the negative Langelier index (corrosive). All of the southern part samples have the positive (very close to zero) Langelier index and suitable for industrial usages. Therefore this is a reason why most of industries in this area were located in the southern part of the fault.