Abstract
In this study, the
seismicity in the Sivas Basin, central eastern Turkey from 1903 to 2018 is
investigated by the Gutenberg and Richter relationship (1944) and the maximum
likelihood method (Aki, 1965) to explore the b-value. The b-value is regarded
as one of the important parameters representing the nature of the occurrence of
earthquakes. Particularly, the b-value characterizes the state of stress in the
crust. The Sivas Basin exhibits the low b-value (0.52 and 0.9), moderate/high
heat flow values (70-80 mWm-2), large negative anomalies owing to
sedimentary basin and low seismicity and the epicenter distributions of
earthquakes are located at the upper crust and along the Deliler-Tecer and Yukari Kizilirmak Fault Zones in the
study region.