Canadian seismology professor: one of the largest earthquakes

Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Canada. Dr. Edwin Nissen, stating that the first earthquake centered on Kahramanmaraş occurred on land, said: “This was one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded.”

Nissen, whose specialty is seismology, noted that the largest earthquakes occur in the oceans, saying: “People who live in coastal areas feel these earthquakes and there are less tremors than earthquakes on land.” Emphasizing that the earthquake in Turkey occurred on land, Nissen said: “This (magnitude 7.7 earthquake) was one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded. Maybe it can be in the top 5 or 10 earthquakes that occur on land in the world. This (occurring on land) was one of the factors that caused the most damage due to the magnitude of the earthquake.

Nissen claimed that after the 1939 earthquake on the North Anatolian Fault, which killed more than 30 thousand people, this major earthquake could be the deadliest earthquake in Turkey. Recalling that earthquakes that occurred on the East Anatolian Fault in the past were around 6.8-7, Nissen said: “Actually, the 6.8 magnitude is 30 times smaller than the 7.8 earthquake. in terms of energy. There is a big difference between magnitude 7.8 or 6.8 earthquakes. “This was a large earthquake that many seismologists were not expecting,” he said.

Nissen claimed that earthquakes greater than 7 on the East Anatolian fault may have occurred in the 20th century and earlier, and that this earthquake was surprising, if not completely unexpected.

Nissen stated that between the Arabian and Eurasian plates, the Anatolian plate, in other words Turkey, was compressed, saying: “In a way, the (Anatolian plate) was compressed to the west. That is, everything between the North Anatolian Fault and the East Anatolian Fault was pushed west. “This movement could cause large earthquakes like this every 100 years or less in 100 years,” he said. (AA)