Investigation of earthquake hazard and seismic site characteristic in the examples of Bursa and Izmir

The principal objectives of this thesis are to investigate the earthquakes are recorded by the local networks installed in Bursa and Izmir cities which belong to the Marmara and Aegean regions of Turkey respectively, and to make a contribution to study, engineering seismology in those cities. These cities are important since they are the most developed and populated settlements of Western Anatolia. The results in this thesis were obtained in the framework of two different TUBITAK projects, formulated to contribute to the understanding of the seismotectonics and engineering seismology in Bursa and Izmir.A temporary seismic network was installed in Bursa and operated during six months. Its main purpose was to determine the seismic activity. 384 well located events were mapped, and 10 focal mechanism solutions were obtained. The principal stress tensor axes were calculated by using fault planes, and a North-South directed extension was determined as a stress regime around Bursa. In addition to this study, microtremor records were analyzed in the north of the city, the most densely populated area of Metropolitan Bursa. Fundamental site frequencies and amplifications at different geological sites were obtained. The results coincide well with the underlying geology.In August, 2008 a strong-motion local network was installed as part of a bi-lateral cooperation between the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency of the Turkish Republic and the Dokuz Eylul University. Similar investigations as those performed for Bursa were also carried out in Izmir, the cultural capital of the Aegean region of Turkey.