Seismological Analysis of May 12, 2016 Diyarbakir (SE Turkey) Blast

ABSTRACT

Diyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey with a population of about 1.6 million inhabitants. The city has been inhabited by humans from about 10.000 years ago in Stone Age. The earliest reference to the city comes from Assyrian records around 1300 BC. However, the city has been suffered by serious terrorist attack in recent years. An explosive-laden dump truck was detonated in Dürümlü village (about 25 km to Diyarbakır) by the members of the separatist terrorist organization (PKK) on the May 12, 2016 around 19:23:55 (UTC). Security sources and Interior Ministry reported that 4 people were killed and 17 people were lost. Police and Interior Ministry records showed that a massive crater formed in a field caused by the explosion. The seismic signals from the blast were recorded by six broadband instruments; DYBB, DIYA, HANI, SVAN, SVRC and MRDN. In this study, these records have been analyzed to obtain some characteristic features of the blast. Analysis of the seismic signals showed that there was a massive explosion recorded by is the range of 18 – 98 km of distance. The results of short time Fourier analysis indicate that the energy release focused at lower frequencies are around 3 Hz. Even though the most of the energy radiated to atmosphere as the healing energy. The amount of energy calculated using seismic signals is about 5.18x1010 joule which is equivalent 12193 kg TNT.

Authors: Fadime Sertçelik, T. Serkan Irmak, Hamdullah Livaoğlu, Evrim Yavuz, İbrahim Sertçelik, Cengiz Kurtuluş

Conference: International conference on Innovative Trends in Engineering, Technology, Computer and Applied Sciences

Date / Location: 8-9 July 2017 / Tokyo-Japan

Cite this paper: Sertçelik, F., Irmak, T. S., Livaoğlu, H., Yavuz, E., Sertçelik, İ., Kurtuluş, C., (2017). Seismological analysis of May 12, 2016 Diyarbakır (SE Turkey) blast, International Conference on Innovative Trends in Engineering, Technology, Computer and Applied Sciences, Tokyo, Japan, 8-9 July 2017.

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