A GENERAL OVERVIEW ON THE REGION-TIME BEHAVIORS OF THE RECENT EARTHQUAKE ACTIVITY IN THE MARMARA REGION OF TURKEY

Abstract

The principal aim of this study is to make a general assessment of the regional and temporal behaviors of the seismicity in the Marmara region of Turkey. For this purpose, the well-known spatio-temporal tools such as Mc-value, b-value, Dc-value, Z-value, recurrence period and annual probability were evaluated. The data catalog is homogeneous for local magnitude, M-L, and includes 18,662 events with 0.4 <= M-L <= 5.7 between 2000 and 2020. Earthquake magnitudes change between 1.5 and 3.0 and hence, Mc-value was taken as 2.7. b-value was calculated as 1.14 +/- 0.07 and the earthquakes with small magnitude can be effective on this relatively large value. Dc-value was estimated as 1.57 +/- 0.03 with a scale invariance from 5.03 to 87.64 km. This moderate value means that distance between the epicenters approaches the diameter of cluster and, earthquake activity is more clustered in larger areas or at smaller scales. Time-magnitude estimations of annual probability and recurrence period indicate that the Marmara region has an intermediate/long terms hazard for the occurrence of strong/large earthquakes. Anomaly regions with low b-value and large Z-value observed at the beginning of 2019 can be considered as the most likely regions for strong/large earthquake occurrences in the next. As a remarkable fact, a correlation and combined interpretation of these seismotectonic parameters may supply a preliminary and essential perspective in the seismic hazard for strong/large earthquake occurrences in the Marmara region of Turkey in the intermediate/long terms.