Surface deformation and Source Parameters of 2023 Hatay Earthquake inferred from the InSAR Data Analysis

Abstract

Tectonic features of Türkiye are mainly controlled by the relative northward movements of the Arabian and subducting African plates with respect to the Anatolian and Eurasian plates. Resultant extensional and collisional tectonics lead to a westward material extrusion accommodated along the right- and left-lateral strike-slip North Anatolian and East Anatolian Fault Zones (NAFZ and EAFZ), respectively. This lateral motion continues southward along the Dead Sea Fault Zone (DSFZ) at the southeastern of Türkiye. February 20, 2023, Mw 6.3 Hatay Earthquake occurred two weeks after the seismic energy release of the February 6, 2023, Kahramanmaraş earthquakes at the intersection of EAFZ, DSFZ, and the onshore extension of the Cyprus Arc. The N-S trending DSFZ starts from the south of the EAFZ and continues through Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. Although the broken segment in Hatay is not as active as the northern segments of the EAFZ, it has accumulated strain leading to significant seismic activity in the past in this region, i.e., the 1872 M7.2 earthquake occurred on the Karasu Fault. 2023 Kahramanmaraş and Hatay earthquakes caused severe damage in Hatay and the surrounding area. To determine the co-seismic deformation during the February 20, 2023, Hatay Earthquake, we applied the Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technique on the Sentinel-1 data. Ascending and descending track SAR images before and after the Kahramanmaraş and Hatay earthquakes were analyzed using the TopsApp module of the InSAR Scientific Computing Environment (ISCE) software to obtain Interferograms of co-seismic deformation in and around Hatay region. Finally, we investigated source parameters by performing an inversion on geodetic constraints considering the Okada elastic dislocation model.