Monitoring Crustal Movements in West Anatolia by Precision Leveling

Abstract

In a previous study, the author investigated the best suited static and kinematic models for deformation analysis. In that study, the best results were obtained with the Kalman-filtering technique for the kinematic model. In addition, the best kinematic surface model was determined. In this study, the conclusions of the previous work have been tested in the city of Aydın in the West Anatolia region of Turkey. Because the crustal movements are very slow, periodic observations have to be performed in the longterm. In addition, such observations have to be done with high precision. For this, precision leveling has been preferred for this study. Precision leveling data were already in place from the observations made each year from 1978 to 1985 in the West Anatolian city of Aydın. From this data, the vertical crustal movements have been determined using the best static and kinematic models determined by the author’s previous work. In conclusion, the average movements of geodetic control points have been determined as 1 cm per year.