The Local Earthquake Tomography of Erzurum (Turkey) Geothermal Area

Abstract

Erzurum and its surroundings are one of the seismically active and hydrothermal areas in the Eastern part of Turkey. This study is the first approach to characterize the crust by seismic features by using the local earthquake tomography method. The earthquake source location and the three dimensional seismic velocity structures are solved simultaneously by an iterative tomographic algorithm, LOTOS-12. Data from a combined permanent network comprising comprises of 59 seismometers which was installed by Ataturk University-Earthquake Research Center and Earthquake Department of the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority to monitor the seismic activity in the Eastern Anatolia, In this paper, three-dimensional Vp and Vp/Vs characteristics of Erzurum geothermal area were investigated down to 30 km by using 1685 well-located earthquakes with 29.894 arrival times, consisting of 17.298 P- wave and 12.596 S- wave arrivals. We develop new high-resolution depth-cross sections through Erzurum and its surroundings to provide the subsurface geological structure of seismogenic layers and geothermal areas. We applied various size horizontal and vertical checkerboard resolution tests to determine the quality of our inversion process. The basin models are traceable down to 3 km depth, in terms of P-wave velocity models. The higher P-wave velocity areas in surface layers are related to the metamorphic and magmatic compact materials. We report that the low Vp and high Vp/Vs values are observed in Yedisu, Kaynarpinar, Askale, Cimenozu, Kaplica, Ovacik, Yigitler, E part of Icmeler, Koprukoy, Uzunahmet, Budakli, Soylemez, Koprukoy, Gunduzu, Karayazi, Icmesu, E part of Horasan and Kaynak regions indicated geothermal reservoir.

Ambient noise tomography of the Aegean region of Türkiye from Rayleigh wave group velocity

“…Our results are relevant in relation to geothermal energy in Türkiye. 80% of the Turkiye's geothermal energy is produced in the Aegean region (Ozer and Ozyazicioglu, 2019). Geothermal Frontiers in Earth Science frontiersin.org fields are dependent on a heat source (such as the cooling magma mass), a permeable reservoir rock, an impermeable overburden, and large water circulation (Ozguler et al, 1983) The low velocities (<1.7 km/s) observed around offshore areas between latitude 38-39 and longitude 26.5-2.75.…”

“…An adequate Rayleigh wave velocity model for the crustal structure of the region would allow to improve the accuracy of hypocenter location which is critical to understand present tectonics in the region. The Aegean region of Türkiye is one of the world's leading producers of geothermal energy (Acevedo et al, 2019;Ozer and Ozyazicioglu, 2019;Ahadov and Ozturk, 2022). For this reason, improving our knowledge of the crustal structure of this region would greatly help to better identify the relations between geology and the distribution of geothermal reservoirs.…”

Coda Wave Spatial Variation in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey

“…The variables x and y symbolize the surface coordinates and the x-direction for the ellipsoid is along the eventstation path. It was chosen to use Vs = 3.2 km/sec, in compliance with the literature [20,44]. The lapse time is the time length coming from the origin time to the coda beginning [1,42,43,45].…”

Removal of algae from thermal mud pool: A case study in Koprukoy (Erzurum, Northeast (NE) Turkey) thermal spring area

“…Turkey with its' a unique geographic location at the junction between Asia, Europe and Africa Continents is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of thermal water resources [12,13]. The thermal waters of Turkey are remarkable geothermal fields that have with different physicochemical parameters [14].…”