No abstract

An earthquake doublet (Mw 7.8 and Mw 7.6) occurred on the East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ) on February 6th, 2023. The events produced significant ground motions and caused major impacts to life and infrastructure throughout SE Türkiye and NW Syria. Here we show the results of earthquake relocations of the first 11 days of aftershocks and rupture models for both events inferred from the kinematic inversion of HR-GNSS and strong motion data considering a multi-fault, 3D geometry. We find that the first event nucleated on a previously unmapped fault before transitioning to the East Anatolian Fault (EAF) rupturing for ~350 km and that the second event ruptured the Sürgü fault for ~160 km. Maximum rupture speeds were estimated to be 3.2 km/s for the Mw 7.8 event. For the Mw 7.6 earthquake, we find super-shear rupture at 4.8 km/s westward but sub-shear eastward rupture at 2.8 km/s. Peak slip for both events were as large as ~8m and ~6m, respectively.

Abstract. We analyze S-receiver functions to investigate variations of lithospheric thickness below the entire region of Turkey and surrounding areas. The teleseismic data used here have been compiled combining all permanent seismic stations which are open to public access. We obtained almost 12 000 S-receiver function traces characterizing the seismic discontinuities between the Moho and the discontinuity at 410 km depth. Common-conversion-point stacks yield wellconstrained images of the Moho and of the lithosphereasthenosphere boundary (LAB). Results from previous studies suggesting shallow LAB depths between 80 and 100 km are confirmed in the entire region outside the subduction zones. We did not observe changes in LAB depths across the North and East Anatolian faults. To the east of Cyprus, we see indications of the Arabian LAB. The African plate is observed down to about 150 km depth subducting to the north and east between the Aegean and Cyprus with a tear at Cyprus. We also observed the discontinuity at 410 km depth and a negative discontinuity above the 410, which might indicate a zone of partial melt above this discontinuity.

Seismic anisotropy is a key parameter in understanding subduction zone dynamics in relation to the recent deformation history. It is usually controlled by the mantle flow patterns resulting from the dynamic interactions between a relatively dense subducting oceanic plate and the surrounding mantle. A proper modelling of mantle flow in subduction systems helps our understanding of the seismic anisotropy source, strength and evolution in time. This study further examines shear wave splitting parameters, one of the most well established measuring methods of seismic anisotropy, and their anisotropy source, based on 3-D geodynamic modelling, applied to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and Anatolia. Our model setting is chosen to be a first order representation

[1] The East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ) represents a plate boundary extending over $500 km between the Arabian and Anatolian plates. Relative plate motion occurs with slip rates ranging from 6 to 10 mm/yr and has resulted in destructive earthquakes in eastern Turkey as documented by historical records. In this study, we investigate the seismic activity along the EAFZ and fault kinematics based on recordings from a densified regional seismic network providing the best possible azimuthal coverage for the target region. We optimize a reference 1-D velocity model using a grid-search approach and re-locate hypocenters using the Double-Difference earthquake relocation technique. The refined hypocenter catalog provides insights into the kinematics and internal deformation of the fault zone down to a resolution ranging typically between 100 and 200 m. The distribution of hypocenters suggests that the EAFZ is characterized by NE-SW and E-W oriented sub-segments that are sub-parallel to the overall trend of the fault zone. Faulting mechanisms are predominantly left-lateral strike-slip and thus in good correlation with the deformation pattern derived from regional GPS data. However, we also observe local clusters of thrust and normal faulting events, respectively. While normal faulting events typically occur on NS-trending subsidiary faults, thrust faulting is restricted to EW-trending structures. This observation is in good accordance with kinematic models proposed for evolving shear zones. The observed spatiotemporal evolution of hypocenters indicates a systematic migration of micro-and moderate-sized earthquakes from the main fault into adjacent fault segments within several days documenting progressive interaction between the major branch of the EAFZ and its secondary structures. Analyzing the pre versus post-seismic phase for M > 5 events we find that aftershock activities are initially spread to the entire source region for several months but start to cluster at the central part of the main shock rupture thereafter.Citation: Bulut, F., M. Bohnhoff, T. Eken, C. Janssen, T. Kılıç, and G. Dresen (2012), The East Anatolian Fault Zone: Seismotectonic setting and spatiotemporal characteristics of seismicity based on precise earthquake locations,