Comparison Of Backprojection Techniques For Rupture Propagation Modelling Of The Mw=7,8 Earthquake Near Kahramanmaras And Its Mw=7,5 Aftershock Near Elbistan Turkey, 2023

This paper utilises teleseismic Z-component data to investigate the rupture\textquotesingle{s} propagation, extent and velocity field for two destructive earthquakes of the East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ); the M_w=7,8 earthquake occurrence near Kahramanmaras on 2023/Feb/06 and its M_w=7,5 major aftershock at Elbistan (Cardak Fault). Both earthquakes have been the most devastating in that tectonic region during the last decades and have caused property damage and human casualties. The extent of the rupture was modelled with high-resolution beamforming and multichannel classification.The teleseismic data were derived from agencies in the US and Canada. The rupture of the M_w=7,8 earthquake was found to be bi-directional towards north-east and south-west. A distance of 299 km was covered in 185 s with varying velocity field values along the main fault, while its splay and the major aftershock, ruptured, also, bi-directionally, to an extent of 150 km within 46 s. The findings provide new insights of the evolution of the spatio-temporal rupture of the EAFZ and may serve as a basis for long-term earthquake hazard planning of the area.