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Abstract:
Earthquake hazard assessment with respect to megacities is one of the key challenges in Geosciences. Istanbul is one of these cities due to its location about 15 km north of a major tectonic plate boundary that separates the Eurasian plate from the Anatolian plate. Whereas the possible magnitude range and location of expected earthquakes can be determined with computer simulations, the precise timing in advance is not possible. Nevertheless, computer simulations of earthquake scenarios are an important tool that represents the deterministic seismic hazard assessment. Currently our research focuses on the quantification of model parameter uncertainties by means of assessing the results of earthquake-scenario simulation with statistical methods of probabilistic seismic hazard assessment. The on-going rapid increase in computing power will, in the future, enable us to simulate multiple ensembles
of earthquake scenarios as done in meteorological weather forecasts in order to assess which of the simulated scenarios is the most probable to occur. The key mathematical tools in this type of modelling are numerical methods that solve the partial differential equations that describe the equilibrium of forces for the earthquake nucleation and time-dependent statistical methods that quantify the uncertainties of the models. For Istanbul this research is essential since the tectonic fault has not ruptured since 1766. The fault is mature and has the potential to produce an earthquake of Mw > 7.
