Radar time series analysis over West Anatolia

Abstract

Interseismic tectonic motion manifests itself as a long (10’s to 100’s km) wavelength signal. The magnitude and the extent of the signal is crucial to understand kinematics of the crustal motion. For two decades, GPS measurements have been the main source of information for observing such a signal. In this study we use Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) observations, which provides better spatial resolution, to monitor tectonic signal overWest Anatolia. The region is characterized by horstgraben morphology which is controlled by oblique-slip normal faults. The faults cause an extension circa 25-30 mm/yr in NE-SW direction as observed by sparse GPS network measurements. In our analysis, we have used 42 ERS images acquired between 1992 and 2001 years. We have identified coherent interferograms which would reduce the noise level in the rural areas leading to increased point density. Finally we compare our PSI results with two other GPS studies within the region. The modeled interseismic signal from a recent GPS study ([1]) agrees with the one modeled from that of PSI observations in trend direction.