Revision of Turkish Seismic Hazard Map

Abstract:The probabilistic seismic hazard assessment project that constitutes the basis of current Turkish seismic zonation map was realized almost 20 years ago. Inherently, procedures used in seismic hazard assessment as well as consideration of uncertainties in ground motion and seismic source characterization have been improved for the last two decades. As such, many local studies on seismic source databases, earthquake catalogs and ground-motion prediction equations were carried out in Turkey in the last 20 years. Although some of these studies were used in various national or international projects in which Turkish researchers were actively involved, their effects on the Turkish seismic design code were either limited or none. Meanwhile seismic design spectrum that defines the seismic design loads for earthquake resistant design have undergone conceptual changes in the world. This project computes hazard maps for a set of annual exceedance levels for peak ground acceleration (PGA) as well as 5%-damped pseudo-spectral acceleration (PSA) ordinates at T = 0.2s and T = 1.0s for the entire country. The project implements stateof- art knowledge in probabilistic seismic hazard assessment and accounts for the most recent local studies in Turkey that are of direct use in the calculations. The seismic hazard maps for PGA and 5%-damped PSA at T = 0.2s and T = 1.0s are computed for a generic rock site defined by VS30 = 760 m/s. The products of this project would contain fundamental information for the revision of design spectrum in the Turkish earthquake code. The seismic hazard maps produced within this framework can also be useful for developing more reliable models for earthquake insurance premium calculations in Turkey.
Project Manager:  Prof. Dr. Sinan Akkar
Project Code: UDAP-Ç-13-06 
Budget: 150 000 TL
* Completed *