Seismic Observations of Turkey
Mr. BAYKAL Mehmet (2010-2011 Seismology Course)
Earthquake Department, Prime Ministry, Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, Turkey

1. Weak Motion Observations
The purpose of the seismological observations is to determine some parameters of earthquakes
and produce some projects against the earthquake disaster. TURKNET project was established forcarrying out these studies as a section of the General Directorate of Disaster Affairs, Earthquake
Research Department in 1989. 12 seismological observation stations were set up along beetween Sivas
and Adapazari on middle part of the North Anatolian Fault Zone in the begining of the project, andlater, 31 stations were spreaded out along the active fault lines in Turkey. The locations of the remotestations were not only selected by taking into consideration structural geology and seismicity data but
also depend on signal-transmitting conditions. The monitoring of the earthquakes in the contry-wide
scale recording, evaluation to archive and to inform the public have to be carried out under adeveloped National Earthquake Observation Network. The National Brodband Earthquake Monitoring
Network of Turkey with 19 stations was integrated with the 31 stations of the National TelemetricObservation and Recording Network of Turkey (TURKNET) and the number of station has been
increased to about 200 in 2011 (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. National Weak Motion Network2. Strong Motion Observations
Strong Motion Network of Turkey was established in 1973 at Earthquake Research
Department under the Ministry of Public Works and Settlement General Directorate of Disaster
Affairs. The aim of the Network is not only to develop the methods of constructing earthquake
resistant structures by measuring the forces that causes damage to the buildings, but also to collect therecorded data under catalogues for database that could be useful for engineering applications andscientific studies.
According to the aim of the project and distribution of the instruments with limited number ofaccelometer, they are installed on the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ), East Anatolian Fault Zone(EAFZ) and Aegean Graben System where the big earthquakes occurred or the expected active areas
with a distance about 50-80 km. These instruments are mostly installed inside the public buildings or
at free fields.
Firstly, the Network was operated with analog accelometers. But after 1993, digital
accelometers were added to the Network. Up to 2001, the total number of the instruments which wereoperated in this project was 120 where 67 instruments were analog and 53 of them were digital. Butsince 2001, with the financial support of NATO, 20 digital accelometer instruments were bought andso the local Network of Bursa-Yalova (BYTNet) and Aydın-Denizli (DATNet) were established tobring the number of total instruments to 140. In addition to this, with the support of the Scientific andTechnical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), 18 digital instruments were bought and the local
Network of Hatay-K.Maraş (MATNet) will be established. So, as of June 2011, the total station
number is 360 as shown in Fig.2.

Figure 2. National Strong Ground Motion Network2