An Alternative View of the Microseismicity along the Western Main Marmara Fault

Type Article
Date 2018-10
Language English
Author(s) Batsi Evangelia1, Lomax Anthony2, Tary Jean-Baptiste3, Klingelhoefer FraukeORCID1, Riboulot VincentORCID1, Murphy ShaneORCID1, Monna Stephen4, Ozel Nurcan Meral5, Kalafat Dogan5, Saritas Hakan6, Cifci Gunay6, Cagatay Namik7, Gasperini Luca8, Geli LouisORCID1
Affiliation(s) 1 : Inst Francais Rech Exploitat Mer Ifremer, Lab Aleas Geol & Dynam Sedimentaire LAD, Marine Geosci Res Unit, CS 70, F-20280 Plouzane, France.
2 : ALomax Sci, 320 Chemin Indes, F-06370 Mouans Sartoux, France.
3 : Univ los Andes, Dept Geociencias, Carrera 1 18-A-10 Edificio M1 Tercer Piso, Bogota, Colombia.
4 : INGV, Unit RU Integrated Syst Marine Environm Infrastru, Via Vigna Murata 605, I-00143 Rome, Italy.
5 : Bogazici Univ, KOERI, TR-34684 Istanbul, Turkey.
6 : DEU, Cumhuriyet Bulvan 144, TR-35210 Izmir, Turkey.
7 : ITU, Fac Mines, Dept Geol, TR-34469 Istanbul, Turkey.
8 : Natl Res Council ISMAR CNR, Inst Marine Sci, Via Gobetti 101, I-40129 Bologna, Italy.
Source Bulletin Of The Seismological Society Of America (0037-1106) (Seismological Soc Amer), 2018-10 , Vol. 108 , N. 5A , P. 2650-2674
DOI 10.1785/0120170258
WOS© Times Cited 11
Abstract

A detailed study, based on ocean‐bottom seismometers (OBSs) recordings from two recording periods (3.5 months in 2011 and 2 months in 2014) and on a high‐resolution, 3D velocity model, is presented here, which provides an alternative view of the microseismicity along the submerged section of the North Anatolian fault (NAF) within the western Sea of Marmara (SoM). The nonlinear probabilistic software packages of NonLinLoc and NLDiffLoc were used for locating earthquakes. Only earthquakes that comply with the following location criteria (e.g., representing 20% of the total amount of events) were considered for analysis: (1) number of stations≥5; (2) number of phases≥6, including both P and S; (3) root mean square (rms) location error≤0.5  s; and (4) azimuthal gap≤180°. P and S travel times suggest that there are strong velocity anomalies along the Western High, with low Vp, low Vs, and ultra‐high Vp/Vs in areas where mud volcanoes and gas‐prone sediment layers are known to be present. The location results indicate that not all earthquakes occurred as strike‐slip events at crustal depths (>8  km) along the axis of the Main Marmara fault (MMF). In contrast, the following features were observed: (1) a significant number of earthquakes occurred off‐axis (e.g., 24%), with predominantly normal focal mechanisms, at depths between 2 and 6 km, along tectonically active, structural trends oriented east–west or southwest–northeast, and (2) a great number of earthquakes was also found to occur within the upper sediment layers (at depths<2  km), particularly in the areas where free gas is suspected to exist, based on high‐resolution 3D seismics (e.g., 28%). Part of this ultra‐shallow seismicity appears to occur in response to deep earthquakes of intermediate (ML∼4–5) magnitude. Resolving the depth of the shallow seismicity requires adequate experimental design ensuring source–receiver distances of the same order as hypocentral depths. To reach this objective, deep‐seafloor observatories with a sufficient number of geophone sensors near the fault trace are needed.

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Batsi Evangelia, Lomax Anthony, Tary Jean-Baptiste, Klingelhoefer Frauke, Riboulot Vincent, Murphy Shane, Monna Stephen, Ozel Nurcan Meral, Kalafat Dogan, Saritas Hakan, Cifci Gunay, Cagatay Namik, Gasperini Luca, Geli Louis (2018). An Alternative View of the Microseismicity along the Western Main Marmara Fault. Bulletin Of The Seismological Society Of America, 108(5A), 2650-2674. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1785/0120170258 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00453/56416/