Microtremor exploration for shallow S-wave velocity profiles at stations in local strong motion network in Bursa, Yalova, and Kocaeli in north-western Turkey

We conducted microtremor array surveys for shallow S-wave velocity profiles at 20 sites in Bursa, Yalova and Kocaeli provinces in the north-western part of Turkey to provide fundamental data to assess the seismic hazard in the area. All of the measurement sites were positioned very close to strong motion stations belonging to the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency of Turkey (AFAD) in order to further understand site amplification factors in strong motion records. Of the 20 study sites, two were located in Yalova, four in Bursa and 14 in Kocaeli. We temporarily installed two small arrays to obtain simultaneous records of vertical microtremors. Then, the spatial autocorrelation method was applied to retrieve Rayleigh wave phase velocity curves in a frequency range from 1 to 30Hz from the array records. The phase velocities in the western part of the Kocaeli area are low across a wide frequency range, while relatively high phase velocities are found in the eastern part of the Kocaeli province. The phase velocities in the Yalova and Bursa provinces are widely distributed suggesting large variations in soil conditions. The observed phase velocity curve at each site was inverted to a one-dimensional (1D) S-wave velocity profile to a depth of 100 m, using a hybrid heuristic inversion method. All the S-wave velocity profiles in the eastern Kocaeli area are similar; however, the sites in the western Kocaeli and Yalova-Bursa areas have profiles with different features from the others. Finally, we discuss amplification factors for S-waves using the inverted profiles. The dominant fundamental periods of the amplification factors were distributed in a frequency range from 0.7 to 5 Hz. The profiles obtained are also used tomapaverage S-wave velocities in the study area, with an addition of existing data at strong motion stations of the AFAD.