The Local Earthquake Tomography of Erzurum (Turkey) Geothermal Area

Abstract

Erzurum and its surroundings are one of the seismically active and hydrothermal areas in the Eastern part of Turkey. This study is the first approach to characterize the crust by seismic features by using the local earthquake tomography method. The earthquake source location and the three dimensional seismic velocity structures are solved simultaneously by an iterative tomographic algorithm, LOTOS-12. Data from a combined permanent network comprising comprises of 59 seismometers which was installed by Ataturk University-Earthquake Research Center and Earthquake Department of the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority  to monitor the seismic activity in the Eastern Anatolia, In this paper, three-dimensional Vp and Vp/Vs characteristics of Erzurum geothermal area were investigated down to 30 km by using 1685 well-located earthquakes with 29.894 arrival times, consisting of 17.298 P- wave and 12.596 S- wave arrivals. We develop new high-resolution depth-cross sections through Erzurum and its surroundings to provide the subsurface geological structure of seismogenic layers and geothermal areas. We applied various size horizontal and vertical checkerboard resolution tests to determine the quality of our inversion process. The basin models are traceable down to 3 km depth, in terms of P-wave velocity models. The higher P-wave velocity areas in surface layers are related to the metamorphic and magmatic compact materials. We report that the low Vp and high Vp/Vs values are observed in Yedisu, Kaynarpinar, Askale, Cimenozu, Kaplica, Ovacik, Yigitler, E part of Icmeler, Koprukoy, Uzunahmet, Budakli, Soylemez, Koprukoy, Gunduzu, Karayazi, Icmesu, E part of Horasan and Kaynak regions indicated geothermal reservoir.