Lithospheric structure beneath east Türkiye and implications for the 2023 doublet earthquakes

In February 2023, Türkiye suffered two strong earthquakes with a scale of more than 7 Mw, causing serious human and property losses. Previous studies have been conducted close to this area, indicating that lithospheric deformation is mainly controlled by the strong interaction of the surrounding converging plates and is significantly influenced by the distribution of deep fluids. However, due to the sparse observations and resolution of seismic and electromagnetic imaging of subsurface structures, no high-resolution image reveals the relationship between deep structures and strong earthquakes in this region. An international cooperation project is funded to use seismology and electromagnetic data to understand deep structures and processes better. This study aims to apply the newly developed seismic technique to describe the geometry of the key interface in the lithosphere, and newly deployed MT data to reveal the distribution of fluid/partial melt. Constricting the content and spatial distribution of deep fluid, the deformation mechanism, and the fluid behavior of lithosphere under plate interaction will be discussed. The detailed results will be presented in this meeting.