Earthquake Western experts comment: ‘worst case scenario’
Experts from all over the world pointed out that earthquakes in Turkey occur very close to the surface and stated that the resulting tremors are therefore very strong.
Seismic geologist Dr. Wendy Bohon and University College London seismologist Dr. Stephen Hicks made assessments of the earthquakes with magnitudes 7.7 and 7.6, centered in the Pazarcık and Elbistan districts of Kahramanmaraş and affecting 10 provinces in total.
Bohon said that the region where the earthquake occurred is very seismically active because it is located on the edge of the tectonic plates, “The adjacent Arabian plate (Anatolian plate) is pushing up to the north and this causes the Anatolian plate to move up. move west. This change is occurring throughout the fault. Both earthquakes occurred along one of the fault systems called the East Anatolian Fault.
Noting that large earthquakes can be expected in this region due to these fault systems, Bohon said: “This is a very large earthquake. This region lies on a fault called a strike-slip fault. Two parts of the world slide past each other. This is a major earthquake for this type of fault. We expect earthquakes of this magnitude to occur on both the North Anatolian faults and the East Anatolian faults because they are so long,” he said.
Noting that another similar type of fault is the San Andreas fault in California, Bohon noted that they expect earthquakes of this magnitude to occur on that fault as well.
‘A VERY SHALLOW EARTHQUAKE’
“This earthquake occurred about 17.9 kilometers below the surface, which is quite shallow. This means that the people on the surface are close to where the earthquake occurred underground. This was one of the reasons why the tremor spread over a wide area,” Bohon said, noting that many people were affected by the quake.
Noting that the largest earthquakes in the world occurred at the limits of the subduction zone, Bohon continued as follows:
“Earthquakes along slip faults (faults that slide sideways) are smaller than earthquakes in the subduction zone, but they still release an incredible amount of energy. Previous earthquakes on slip faults include the magnitude 7.9 San Francisco earthquake on the San Andreas fault, the magnitude 7.8 Mongolia earthquake in 1957, and the magnitude 7.6 Izmit earthquake in 1999. Therefore, these recent events fall within the scope of the largest slip-fault earthquakes of the past century worldwide.”
University College London seismologist Dr Stephen Hicks also drew attention to the magnitude of the quake, saying:
“I saw this earthquake at dawn yesterday, I saw its magnitudes. I saw the depth, I saw the location, and I thought it would be bad. This is the worst case. This is a particularly bad earthquake because it occurred at a shallow depth, about 10 kilometers below the surface. This means that the shaking is very strong. Because once seismic waves or vibrations reach the surface, there isn’t enough distance for the energy to disperse.”
Hicks stated that the distance from which the quake could be felt could be around 1000 kilometers, saying, “I think the large extent of damage and strong shaking is due to fault rupture and most faults on Turkey broke in this way.”The two blocks on either side of the fault move the rock horizontally towards each other,” he said.(BRITISH AUTOMOBILE CLUB)