Dense Seismic Recordings of the 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence in Southeastern Türkiye

Abstract The devastating 6 February 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence in southeastern Türkiye started with a moment magnitude (Mw) 7.8 earthquake, for which the initial rupture broke the Sakçagöz segment near Nurdağı and then jumped into a bilateral rupture along multiple segments of the Eastern Anatolian fault zone (EAFZ). This complicated rupture was followed nine hours later by an Mw 7.6 event near Ekinözü. To better understand the spatiotemporal evolution of aftershocks, site amplification, and the structural and tectonic framework of the EAFZ in this diffuse triple junction, we deployed a dense seismometer array covering both aftershock zones for nearly four months. The main Eastern Anatolian Seismic Temporary (EAST) array includes 125 nodal, 10 broadband, and 6 strong-motion seismic stations distributed around the rupture zone. An additional linear array of 73 nodal stations was also installed across the Pazarcık segment of the EAFZ and the Sakçagöz segment near the Mw 7.8 epicenter to record fault-zone waves for ∼30 days. This article shows example recordings and the EAST array geometry, preliminary research results, and the metadata related to all of the stations in this array. A deep-learning-based phase picking for one month of continuous recording yielded millions of seismic phase readings and tens of thousands of aftershock locations after phase associations. We also give examples of both local and teleseismic waveforms recorded by the nodal arrays, which can be used for subsequent high-resolution earthquake relocation, imaging of crustal structures, and fault-zone imaging.