Paleoseismological catalog of Pre-2012 trench studies on the active faults in Turkey

Abstract

Instrumental and historical earthquake catalogues have to be examined and evaluated to understand the long-term seismic behaviour of active faults. Although the instrumental records have been determined from the national and international observatories, the historical seismic catalogues are very limited in Turkey. For the reason, we aimed to compile paleoseismological trench studies carried out before 2012 in the areas of onshore and offshore sections of Turkey. In terms of a Turkey Paleoseismological Project (TURKPAP) posted by General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration (MTA) in the 2012 year, a number of paleoseismological investigations have been initiated and documented for archiving at a standardized data layout. In this study, we compiled all paleoseismological trench surveys with the definite dates of past strong seismic events occurred in Turkey before that date. By using this compilation, not only the historical earthquakes but also many paleoseismologic parameters of the studies have been listed clearly.