How earthquakes hit Turkey in February 2023

Three studies now published in the open access journal The Seismic Record provide a first look at the earthquakes that occurred on February 6, 2023 in south-central Turkey and northwest Syria, including how, where and how quickly the earthquakes occurred and how they came together as an earthquake. “Destructive Double” to produce a devastating ground shake.

The two earthquakes, which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale and followed nearly nine hours later with a magnitude of 7.6, occurred at the active and tectonically complex intersection of the Anatolian, Arabian and African plates along the East Anatolian Rift (EAF). Most of the recent large earthquakes have occurred in the North Anatolian Fault in Turkey, while only three medium-sized earthquakes – the largest with a magnitude of 6.8 – have occurred on the Egyptian Armed Forces in the past 50 years.

First analyzes of rupture and aftershocks

The epicenter of the first quake, with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, was located about 15 kilometers east of the Egyptian Armed Forces. The epicenter of the second earthquake of magnitude 7.6 was located in the Sorgo-Misis Fault Zone (SMFZ) about 90 kilometers north of the first quake.

The first earthquake caused the Egyptian Armed Forces to rupture bilaterally (in two different directions away from the epicenter), along a fault of about 350 kilometers (including aftershocks) in 80 seconds, resulting in surface displacements of more than six metres, according to For an analysis conducted by P.•Martin Mee of KAUST and colleagues. They noted that the second quake ruptured bilaterally over a distance of nearly 170 kilometers (including aftershocks) in 35 seconds, with more than seven meters of surface faulting.

An analysis led by Gesa M. indicates the distribution of aftershocks over approximately 160 km of the small and medium-sized area. In this study, the researchers tracked the rupture direction for each earthquake, showing that the former includes multiple directional phases and fragmented rupture. Their analysis of the mainshocks and aftershocks provided new details about how the EFA and SMFZ ruptured and shed light on a previously unmapped portion of the fault near the Turkish city of Malatya.

In their TSR paper, Dara E. Goldberg of the USGS and colleagues relied on optical and radar images, available in the first few days after sequencing began, to illustrate the impact of the rupture. As new images became available, the US Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) updated the source characteristics and impact analyzes to reflect a new understanding of the extent of the rupture. In total, the group has mapped more than 340 km of rupture associated with the main impact and approximately 175 km of rupture associated with the subsequent event.

May and colleagues said that two large earthquakes occurring so soon as a “double up” is not uncommon, but the first shock may have triggered stress changes in the epicenter region of the second that caused the SMFZ to fail.

Goldberg and colleagues argue that statistically there is a 7% chance of an earthquake triggering a double, indicating that this behavior is not anomalous.

Aftershocks from the two earthquakes, Petersen and his colleagues said, showed a variety of mechanisms, including slip, natural slip, and misdirection. Slip-like mechanisms for the two main shocks were observed in the northeastern parts of the EAF and along most of the SMFZ, while the team observed defective aftershocks in the southwestern parts of the EAFZ, as well as clustered at the western end of the small and medium boundary zone.

Combined with the way the rupture process appeared to jump between different fault segments, Petersen and colleagues suggest that the evolution of earthquake ruptures in Turkey is similar in complexity to the 2022 Denali, Alaska earthquake to the 2016 Kaikoura, New Zealand earthquake.

Quick response

The USGS NEIC quickly characterizes earthquakes around the world, Goldberg and his colleagues said, and its products such as ShakeMap and PAGER (Global Earthquake Instant Assessment for Response) are often sought after by researchers in the aftermath of a major earthquake. In the case of the Turkish earthquakes, traffic to the USGS General Earthquake Event webpages had 1,035,364 hits within the 24 hours after the start of the sequence.

Consistent with its role as a first-order indicator of how government agencies will respond in the aftermath of the earthquake, the NEIC released the initial ShakeMap of the event 7.8 on the Richter scale 15.7 minutes after the sequence began, and the PAGER rating 21.2 minutes after the earthquake’s origin time, with similar timing to the subsequent event, according to Goldberg. and colleagues.

Earth movement details

May and colleagues write that recordings of strong motion made during the first mainshock found that the peak ground acceleration (the maximum ground acceleration that occurs during earthquake shaking at a specific location) reached 2g locally. This action is consistent with the observed severe vibration and very severe damage.

These researchers noted that the rupture in both earthquakes stopped abruptly, which may have contributed to the strong seismic vibration radiation. Then, ground motions from the second major shock would have hit buildings weakened by the first, potentially increasing damage and destruction as a result.

Goldberg and colleagues write that PAGER, the USGS loss estimation product, likely underestimated the effect of the sequence as a whole, because it does not take into account repeated shaking due to aftershocks. They concluded that a composite ShakeMap that includes the maximum shaking intensity at each location for the entire earthquake sequence may be more suitable for estimating losses for this damaging earthquake sequence.

If the composite ShakeMap had been used as input into PAGER, Goldberg and colleagues said, the final PAGER assessment of sequencing would have included 30,000 deaths and $51 billion in economic losses.

magazine

seismic record

research method

An observational study

Research topic

Not applicable

Article title

A quick characterization of the February 2023 Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye, earthquake sequence

The date the article was published

May 23, 2023

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