Investigation of Earthquakes in Turkey with Cluster Analysis

Abstract

In this study, earthquakes with a magnitude of 3 and above occurring between 36-42 degrees North latitude and 26-45 degrees East longitude, within and around Turkey from 1980 to 2022, were considered. Turkey and its immediate surroundings were divided into 114-unit squares using latitude and longitude coordinates to investigate seismic similarities. The variables including 50130 earthquake depths and magnitudes in our data set were analyzed using the {K-Means Cluster Analysis} method in the SPSS program. Hierarchical clustering method was used to determine the number of clusters and the number of clusters was determined as 5 with the help of the dendrogram obtained. As a result of the cluster analysis, it was observed that 47% of the earthquakes in Turkey were at a depth of 5 to 10 km. It has been observed that 93% of the earthquake intensities occur between 3 and 4 magnitudes. A cluster analysis was conducted to assess the similarities and dissimilarities among earthquakes within these unit squares in terms of their magnitudes and depths. Due to the large sample size and the analysis involving continuous variables, the earthquake data were grouped into 5 clusters using non-hierarchical clustering methods, and the relationships within and between these clusters were observed.