Investigation of Earthquakes in Turkey with Cluster Analysis

Abstract

In this study, earthquakes with a magnitude of 3 and above between 35-42 North latitudes and 26-45 East longitudes in and around Turkey between 1980 and 2022 were considered. In this study Turkey and its immediate surroundings were divided into 114 unit squares with latitude and longitude circles in order to reveal the similarities in terms of seismicity. It has been applied a cluster analysis by considering the similarities and hence the dissimilarities for the earthquakes occurring in the unit squares in terms of their magnitudes and depths. Since the sample size was high and the analysis included continuous variables, the earthquake data were grouped into 5 clusters using the non-hierarchical clustering method and the relationships within and between the groups were observed.