## 3 Materials and Methods
### Preliminary Analysis of the Characteristics of PGA Distribution  
According to Table 2, the earthquake's highest Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) values were recorded at station 4614, which is situated in Kahramanmaras City. Its PGA values in all three directions were the largest among all stations (north-south: 2039.20 cm/s\({}^{2}\), east-west: 2016.99 cm/s\({}^{2}\), vertical: 1582.62 cm/s\({}^{2}\)). We used SeismoSignal software (Version 5.1.0) to replot the data from station 4614, using a smoothing spline function to reduce noise and enhance clarity. Figure 8 displays the PGA time-history curve pertaining to station 4614. The PGA value of 1372.07 cm/s\({}^{2}\), which ranks as the second-largest in the east-west direction, was documented at station 3135 in Arsuz. This measurement was obtained at a fault distance of 33.44 km. The second-largest north-south PGA value (1351.50 cm/s\({}^{2}\)) was recorded at station 3129 in Defne, with a fault distance of 2.42 km. The second-largest vertical PGA value (1151.56 cm/s\({}^{2}\)) was recorded at station 3129 in Hatay, with a fault distance of 5.15 km.  
Figure 8: PGA time–history curve for station 4614. This figure shows the acceleration time history curves recorded at station 4614 during the earthquake. The subfigures (a–c) represent the east–west, north–south, and vertical components of the acceleration, respectively.  
Furthermore, it has been observed that certain north-south peak ground acceleration (PGA) values exhibited a notable disparity when compared to the east-west PGA values in the context of this earthquake. Station 7901, situated in Kilis, exhibited a north-south peak acceleration of 53.11 cm/s\({}^{2}\), which is 3.2 times greater than the east-west peak acceleration of 16.55 cm/s\({}^{2}\). Similarly, for some stations, the east-west peak acceleration was notably larger than the north-south component. For instance, station 4626 in Onikisubat had an east-west peak acceleration of 223.09 cm/s\({}^{2}\), which is 2.05 times that of the north-south peak acceleration (108.81 cm/s\({}^{2}\)). Instances were observed where the vertical peak acceleration surpassed the magnitude of acceleration in the horizontal direction. An example of this can be seen at station 3123 in Hatay, where the vertical peak acceleration measured was 867.58 cm/s\({}^{2}\). This value is 1.46 times higher than the east-west peak acceleration recorded at 593.94 cm/s\({}^{2}\).  
The recorded data comprises information gathered from multiple stations, with a specific focus on strategically positioning some of these stations near the East Anatolian Fault. The nearest station to the fault is station 3139, located at a distance of only 0.06 km. There are additional stations in close proximity to station 3137, such as station 3123 which is located 1.72 km away. There are a total of 22 stations located within a 10 km radius of the fault, while 49 stations are situated within a 50 km radius. The acquisition of near-fault seismic records is of utmost importance in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of near-field seismic characteristics. These records play a vital role in establishing precise attenuation relationships and revealing the scale and faulting characteristics of seismic faults [28; 29].  
Using Surfer Software (Version 23.0.15), we employed the Kriging interpolation to generate contour maps of the PGA values for three directions (north-south, east-west, and vertical) based on the collected strong motion data. Figure 9 depicts the spatial distribution of Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) values observed in the earthquake event, which shows a clear correlation with the fault geometry and rupture pattern. In the subsequent sections, we conduct a more detailed analysis and discussion of the seismic effects, building upon the examination of Figure 9.  
Figure 9: _Cont._