Project description

The main objective of SAIDAN is to generate a thorough quantitative understanding on deformation processes extending from fully seismic to completely aseismic movements in the brittle Earth’s crust. A special emphasis is placed on the occurrence of large earthquakes in relation to both plate-bounding transform faults and reservoir engineering activities. Understanding which structural fault properties of strike-slip fault zones lead to seismic, aseismic or slow-slip energy release and how they affect the potential to nucleate large earthquakes is of critical importance for the seismic hazard of nearby population centers. We propose to address these scientific topics by analyzing data from the North Anatolian Fault in northwestern Turkey, where the fault is overdue for a magnitude M>7 earthquake in direct vicinity to the Istanbul metropolitan region with >18 million inhabitants. At the same time, fluid-injection into the subsurface in the frame of reservoir-engineering activities for hydrocarbon and geothermal energy production has resulted in the reactivation of previously unknown critically stressed and thus hazardous faults. In Oklahoma and Kansas (US), a dramatic increase of induced seismicity including four M>5 earthquakes has been seen over the last decade. SAIDAN aims at quantifying the proportion of seismic versus aseismic slip release in fluid-injection environments and investigating the resulting maximum magnitude of the induced earthquakes and the subsequent hazard. The SAIDAN project started as a Young Investigators Group that run from 2018 to 2024, and partially continues from 2025 with funds from the Helmholtz program for first-time female professorial appointment. 

Project duration

2018 - 2024

2025 -

Zuwendungsgeber

Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft - Young Investigators Group

Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft - Funding of first-time professorial appointments of highly talented female scientists