The 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes in Turkey: Seismic Movements along Conjugated Faults

The earthquakes in Turkey (Kahramanmaraş province) in February 2023 do not fit into the usual mainshock–aftershocks sequence. According to Bath’s statistical law [1], the magnitude of the strongest aftershock is expected to be one less than the magnitude of the mainshock. Meanwhile, for the aftershock sequence in Turkey, the difference in magnitude is only 0.1. In Turkish publications, the first of the strongest earthquakes is called Pazardzhik ( M w = 7.8) and the second, Elbistan ( M w = 7.7). Each of these earthquakes generated its own system of surface ruptures and aftershock sequences differently oriented in space. The purpose of this study is to assess whether the occurrence of the second earthquake is due to a stress field that existed earlier or if it arose as a result of the mainshock. If the second scenario was realized, the stress field can be almost instantly changed in the vicinity of a strong earthquake (the time difference between the earthquakes was less than nine hours).