Web Based Tectonic Hazard Monitoring: A case study of 2020 Elazig Earthquake

Abstract

The 1500km long, EW directional North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ), and the 700km long, SSW directional East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ) are the major geophysical features in Turkey. They are formed where the Eurasian, Anatolian, and Arabian plates meet. Both faults have produced devastating earthquakes (M>6) throughout history and are still actively deforming and threatening populous areas. Even though individual studies focus on the NAFZ and EAFZ, none of them offer a method for continuous monitoring. In this study, we are taking advantage of the Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) method and adopting the Small BAseline Subset (SBAS) time series approach to map deformation over large swaths (hundreds of km). We developed a web-based, automated system that takes publicly available Sentinel-1 SAR images and generates deformation maps. We chose the Elazig region as our pilot study area because of the destructive M6.7 earthquake that occurred in January 2020. Our initial results capture the co-seismic deformation coherently and also provide insights into pre-seismic and post-seismic deformation characteristics. Our goal is to provide the scientific community with accurate and easy-to-interpret deformation maps, without needing advanced remote sensing knowledge.