Determination of Slip Rates of East Anatolian Fault System with Geodetic Methods

Project Manager: Prof. Dr. Bahadır Aktug
 
Project Code: 7020
 
Project Start Date: 2012
 
Project Budget: 34500 TL
 
Abstract:
East Anatolian Fault System (EAFS) is the second most important fault system in Turkey following North Anatolian Fault System (NAFS). However, the fault slip rates on EAFS were not studied sufficiently. This is possibly due to the relatively lower seismicity and slower slip rates of EAFS with respect of NAFS. On the other hand, historical records show that EAFS has the potential to produce large earthquakes. The GPS studies on EAFS are usually at local scale anda are limited in number. In those studies, it has not been possible to determine slip rates of the different segments of EAFS due to the sparse distribution of geodetic stations. In this respect, determination of fault slip rates of EAFS is one of the areas which requires further investigation. The proposed study comprises the precise determination of the fault slip rates of EAFS with geodetic observations which has a high spatial resolution, better geometric configuration and precision. The determination of the slip rates of EAFS is equally important to understand the kinematics of Anatolian plate. In this Project, it is proposed that the geodetic observations which will be collected in a larger area covering EAFS and will be analyzed to determine the fault-parallel and fault-normal components of the slip rates precisely. The raw GPS data to be obtained in the proposed Project will be analyzed and will be compared to the studies in the literatüre to determine the fault slip rates of EAFS and the current strain accumulation as well.