Nevşehir Castle Region in Turkey Interpreted by the Use of Seismic Surface Wave and Electrical Resistance Measurements Together

Abstract

Abstract The underground city beneath the Nevşehir Castle located in the middle of Cappadocia region in Turkey with approximately cone shape is investigated by jointly utilizing the modern geophysical techniques of seismic surface waves and electrical resistivity. The systematic void structure under the Nevşehir Castle of Cappadocia, which is known to have widespread underground cities, is studied by the use of 33 separate two-dimensional profiles ~4-km long where electrical resistivities and seismic surface waves are concurrently measured. Seismic surface wave measurements are inverted to establish the shear-wave velocity distribution while resistivity measurements are inverted to resolve the resistivity distribution. Several high-resistivity anomalies with a depth range 8-20 m point to a systematic void structure beneath the Nevşehir Castle. We were able to effectively isolate the void structure from the embedding structure since the currently employed resistivity instrument has provided us high resolution quality measurements. Associated with the high resistivity anomalies there exist low-velocity depth zones acquired from the surface wave inversions also pointing to a systematic void structure where three-dimensional visualization techniques are used to show the extension of the void structure under the studied area.