The 2011 Mw 7.1 Van (Eastern Turkey) earthquake

Journal of Geophysical Research
By: , and 

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Abstract

We use interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), body wave seismology, satellite imagery, and field observations to constrain the fault parameters of the Mw 7.1 2011 Van (Eastern Turkey) reverse-slip earthquake, in the Turkish-Iranian plateau. Distributed slip models from elastic dislocation modeling of the InSAR surface displacements from ENVISAT and COSMO-SkyMed interferograms indicate up to 9 m of reverse and oblique slip on a pair of en echelon NW 40 °–54 ° dipping fault planes which have surface extensions projecting to just 10 km north of the city of Van. The slip remained buried and is relatively deep, with a centroid depth of 14 km, and the rupture reaching only within 8–9 km of the surface, consistent with the lack of significant ground rupture. The up-dip extension of this modeled WSW striking fault plane coincides with field observations of weak ground deformation seen on the western of the two fault segments and has a dip consistent with that seen at the surface in fault gouge exposed in Quaternary sediments. No significant coseismic slip is found in the upper 8 km of the crust above the main slip patches, except for a small region on the eastern segment potentially resulting from the Mw 5.9 aftershock on the same day. We perform extensive resolution tests on the data to confirm the robustness of the observed slip deficit in the shallow crust. We resolve a steep gradient in displacement at the point where the planes of the two fault segments ends are inferred to abut at depth, possibly exerting some structural control on rupture extent.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title The 2011 Mw 7.1 Van (Eastern Turkey) earthquake
Series title Journal of Geophysical Research
DOI 10.1002/jgrb.50117
Volume 118
Issue 4
Year Published 2013
Language English
Publisher Wiley
Contributing office(s) Earthquake Science Center
Description 19 p.
Larger Work Type Article
Larger Work Subtype Journal Article
Larger Work Title Journal of Geophysical Research
First page 1619
Last page 1637
Country Turkey
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