S U M M A R YWe discuss the subsurface structure of the Karadere-Duzce branch of the North Anatolian Fault based on analysis of a large seismic data set recorded by a local PASSCAL network in the 6 months following the M w = 7.4 1999 Izmit earthquake. Seismograms observed at stations located in the immediate vicinity of the rupture zone show motion amplification and long-period oscillations in both P-and S-wave trains that do not exist in nearby off-fault stations. Examination of thousands of waveforms reveals that these characteristics are commonly generated by events that are well outside the fault zone. The anomalous features in fault-zone seismograms produced by events not necessarily in the fault may be referred to generally as fault-zone-related site effects. The oscillatory shear wave trains after the direct S arrival in these seismograms are analysed as trapped waves propagating in a low-velocity fault-zone layer. The time difference between the S arrival and trapped waves group does not grow systematically with increasing source-receiver separation along the fault. These observations imply that the trapping of seismic energy in the Karadere-Duzce rupture zone is generated by a shallow fault-zone layer. Traveltime analysis and synthetic waveform modelling indicate that the depth of the trapping structure is approximately 3-4 km. The synthetic waveform modelling indicates further that the shallow trapping structure has effective waveguide properties consisting of thickness of the order of 100 m, a velocity decrease relative to the surrounding rock of approximately 50 per cent and an S-wave quality factor of 10-15. The results are supported by large 2-D and 3-D parameter space studies and are compatible with recent analyses of trapped waves in a number of other faults and rupture zones. The inferred shallow trapping structure is likely to be a common structural element of fault zones and may correspond to the top part of a flower-type structure. The motion amplification associated with fault-zone-related site effects increases the seismic shaking hazard near fault-zone structures. The effect may be significant since the volume of sources capable of generating motion amplification in shallow trapping structures is large.

On August 17, 1999, a destructive earthquake occurred in the western part of the North Anatolian Fault Zone, Turkey. The earthquake source region has been designated as a seismic gap and an M7-class earthquake has been supposed to occur someday in the future so as to fill this seismic gap. So far we have undertaken various kinds of observations in this area and we could obtain some valuable data before, during and after the mainshock. Here we report some of the preliminary results of our recent studies, which include field work started in late July this year and continued during and after the earthquake occurrence just in the earthquake source region and its vicinity, in addition to seismic observations carried out for several years before the mainshock. Much emphasis is put on magnetotelluric field data acquired during the mainshock; in fact, large variations caused by seismic waves were recorded. Such variations could be interpreted in terms of electromagnetic induction in the conducting crust caused by the velocity field interacting with the static magnetic field of the Earth. In particular, the first motion of seismic wave could be identified in the records and used for precise determination of the hypocenter of the mainshock.

No abstract

An accurate aftershock distribution of the 1999 İzmit, Turkey, earthquake was obtained by using the data from a local seismic network, IZINET, and 10 temporary seismic stations. More than 2000 aftershocks were relocated for the period of about 2 months following the mainshock. From this aftershock distribution we obtained several pieces of information on the characteristics of the mainshock. First, the mainshock initiated fault rupture from a place adjacent to an active swarm area where many microearthquakes had been occurring for more than 20 yr prior to the mainshock. Second, the aftershock region extended in the east-west direction along the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ). This confirms that the mainshock was caused by a slip on the NAFZ. Third, the western end of the rupture caused by the mainshock is likely to have reached up to about 29.2Њ E in the İzmit Bay, and hence the total length of the fault rupture caused by the mainshock amounts to about 150 km, as long as the estimate of the fault rupture length is based on the aftershock distribution. This information is important for the discussion on the possibility of future large earthquakes in the west of the source region of the İzmit earthquake. We also found a clear tendency that aftershocks occur in clusters, which implies strong heterogeneity in both the rupture process and the medium along the fault zone.

No abstract

Electric and magnetic data were obtained above the focal area in association with the 1999 Izmit, Turkey earthquake. The acquired data are extremely important for studies of electromagnetic phenomena associated with earthquakes, which have attracted much attention even without clear physical understanding of their characteristics. We have already reported that large electric and magnetic variations observed during the earthquake were simply due to seismic waves through the mechanism of seismic dynamo effect, because they appeared neither before nor simultaneously with the origin time of the earthquake but a few seconds later, with the arrival of seismic wave. In this letter we show the result of our further analyses. Our detailed examination of the electric and magnetic data disclosed small signals appearing less than one second before the large signals associated with the seismic waves. It is not yet solved whether this observational fact is simply one aspect of the seismic dynamo effect or requires a new mechanism.

We applied a 3-D seismic tomography inversion algorithm to arrival-time data obtained, during 18 years from 1985 to 2002, from local seismic networks and aftershock studies in the Marmara region, in order to better understand the upper crustal structure of the complex tectonic region. We integrated all the available data set into a common data set and relocated the events, using a 1-D velocity model. We then selected 3,949 earthquakes and obtained 92355 arrival times, in total, consisting of 59,313 P-wave and 33,042 S-wave arrival times. In this paper we present detailed crustal structures for V p, V s and V p/V s ratios from the surface down to 15 km depth with good resolution in terms of the hit count analysis of seismic rays, the checkerboard and restoring resolution tests for the studied region. The results obtained from the inversion suggest that the western part of the North Anatolian Fault Zone shows strong lateral heterogeneity. We concluded that no clear pattern exists between the distribution of microearthquakes and aftershocks and the velocity perturbations presented in this paper. This is probably due to complex tectonic and geological structures. Large coseismic slip associated with the two recent strong earthquakes was found to correspond to higher velocity anomalies, as was often found recently. On the other hand, low velocity values correspond to the sedimentary units or the alluvium regions, as supported by the low resistivity and gravity values. Thus the results presented in this paper are quite consistent with the other data such as gravity, resistivity and magnetic anomalies, indicating that our model is reliable and efficient and it should be useful for further interpretation of tectonic and geological problems in this region. It should be pointed out, however, that the results of S-wave perturbations and V p/V s ratio could not be discussed in detail because of insufficient quality of the S-wave data and the reliability of the results is not very high. Nonetheless, the fact that recent large Izmit earthquake and moderate aftershocks that occurred in or around the high velocity zones near the low velocity region suggests that high velocity regions found in the area close to Istanbul in the Marmara Sea and also at the Iznik-Mekece fault are potential sites for strain energy accumulation and release.

No abstract