Informing seismic hazard with geodesy & remote-sensing from Türkiye to Central Asia

<div>COMET (The Centre for Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics) uses satellite measurements alongside ground-based observations and geophysical models to study active faults and earthquakes. This talk provides an overview of COMET research products in Türkiye and Central Asia, where interseismic deformation and active faults are directly observable. It also touches on how these products highlight the complexity and difficulty of seismic hazard modelling in Australia.&nbsp;</div><div>Three COMET datasets will be discussed, which each contribute to seismic hazard models. Researchers at COMET have and continue to pioneer INSAR methods including co-seismic interferograms and time-series modelling. For example, the Türkiye (Türkiye) INSAR strain-rate map directly estimates strain-accumulation across faults, while the LICSAR portal and satellite cross-correlation methods are used to quantify co-seismic and post-seismic deformation (including after the devastating 2023 Türkiye-Syria earthquake).&nbsp;</div><div>Similar methods are applied in the Tien Shan, where active faults are identifiable in satellite imagery and elevation data, but rates of activity are uncertain and expensive to obtain through field work. Here COMET and GEM (the Global Earthquake Model) are collaborating to produce block-model informed PSHA inputs using active fault databases, GNSS, and INSAR.&nbsp;</div><div>While these methods are useful in tectonically active regions, they serve to highlight the difficulties facing Australian seismic hazard modelling where similar methods cannot be used due to low (to unobservable) tectonic strain and very long fault recurrence.&nbsp;</div> This paper was presented to the 2023 Australian Earthquake Engineering Conference 23-25 November 2023 (https://aees.org.au/aees-conference-2023/)