Discrimination of quarry blasts and earthquakes in Manisa district

We can be informed about the seismic activity of a region with seismic recorders that are located in the region. These seismic recorders record the quarry blasts in addition to earthquake activities. In order to determine the actual seismic events, it is necessary to separate the quarry blast data and the earthquake data.The objective of this study is to discriminate the natural and artificial seismic activities in Manisa district. In the study, the seismic activities in Manisa district have been investigated. Total of 296 digital vertical velocity seismograms of 411 seismic events with Md3.2 duration magnitude from earthquake catalog between 2007 to 2014 recorded by Manisa-Akhisar (AKHS), Manisa-Saruhanlı (BLN), Manisa-Salihli (KTT), Manisa-Merkez (CAM) broadband stations were used. The ratio of the maximum S wave and maximum P wave amplitudes of the vertical component velocity seismograms (S/P), the duration of the seismic events in seconds (sec), the ratio of the powers of the common records of 4 stations (Complexity , C) and spectral ratios (SR) of the spectra were calculated. By using linear discriminant function (LDF), earthquake and blasting activities have been differentiated. At the end of this study out of 296 events 124 (42%) were determined as quarry blasts and 172 (58%) were as earthquakes. Using the results of this study seismic catalogues containing only earthquakes can be prepared and seismic activity of the region can be determined correctly.