An Overview of the Seismicity of Lake Van Basin and its Surrounding Area

Abstract

In the scope of this study, the findings obtained from the previous studies using the main shocks with their aftershocks that occurred especially in the recent past are evaluated for the Van Lake Basin. Using the different seismological parameters, the results of these previous studies are compiled to reveal the future earthquake hazard. In the region, many destructive earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 5.0 occurred in the instrumental and historical periods. Finally, two destructive/damaging earthquakes that occurred around the city center of Van on October 23, 2011 (Mw=7.1) and 9 November 2011 (Mw=5.8) showed that the region has active fault mechanisms with different characteristics. As a result, the earthquake hazard evaluation and earthquake forecasting in the near future show higher seismic risk in the east of Lake Van, especially around Çaldıran, Muradiye, Özalp, Saray, and Erciş than in other regions. In addition to seismic risk analyses, the evaluation of the Van Lake Basin and its surroundings, in terms of soil engineering properties and soil-structure interaction, using different parameters based on both geophysical methods and structural investigations, were also examined in this study.