Collaborative Research: RAPID: Deployment of a Nodal Array to Capture Aftershocks of the 2023 Kahramanmaras Earthquake Sequences in Turkey

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Zhigang Peng and Eric Sandvol will install over 100 seismometers in southeastern Turkey to measure aftershocks following the deadly earthquakes of February 6, 2023. The seismometers should detect all aftershocks with magnitudes greater than 1, and over the ten-month deployment around 100,000 are likely to be recorded. It is important that these seismometers be installed and making measurements soon after the major quakes because the number of aftershocks per day decreases over time. The recorded earthquake data will be uploaded to a website and freely shared with other scientists and the interested public. Using these data, Peng, Sandvol, and other scientists can estimate the geometry of all active faults in the region, image properties of the crust in 3D, and develop models to help with forecasting earthquakes. The data will also be used to map out where local soils amplify shaking, so building codes can be improved in these areas. Three U.S. graduate students will go to Turkey to help Peng, Sandvol, and their Turkish collaborators with field work and data analysis.Zhigang Peng and Eric Sandvol propose to deploy seismometers in southeastern Turkey to record aftershocks from the February 6, 2023 M 7.8 and M 7.5 earthquakes. The instruments will include ten broadband seismometers with a high dynamic range, 100 5 Hz SmartSolo three-component seismometers, and six short-period instruments, all from from Earthscope’s RAPID pool. The PIs expect to record about 100,000 aftershocks and the catalogue should be complete down to M = 0.5 to 1. Machine learning and template matching techniques will be applied to the new aftershock catalogue to delineate the geometry of the East Anatolian and Dead Sea faults, the Cyprian Arc, and intraplate faults in this tectonically complex region. These data can also be used to image the crustal velocity structure, using body wave travel time data and surface wave dispersions analysis from large aftershocks and ambient noise. Data from nodal instruments will also be used to quantify site amplification for a range of frequencies. This project will strengthen ties between US and Turkish scientists at TUBITAK. Three graduate students from the PIs' institutions will participate in the fieldwork and gain valuable training, as well as collaboration experience with Turkish scientists and students. Following the NSF RAPID data policy, all of the data will be uploaded to Earthscope Inc.’s Data Management Center (DMC).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.