2023-04-24 20:39:25
The recent earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria left thousands of victims in both countries. The epicenter of the event in the Turkish country was the city of Kahramanmaraslocated to the south of the territory, and one of the areas more punished. Now, months after the tragedy, when it seemed that he was recovering his calm, an investigation published in the journal Seismica of the University Southern California (USC) claims that it could occur another quake in the ottoman country.
The Cause: A Stuck Fault
Earthquakes are a freak result of displacement tectonic plates (pieces of the earth’s crust), which in a way level they put pressure on each other. This fact produces a energy accumulation over years and even centuries, which means that when the plates finally displacethis energy explodes “in waves that travel through the earth’s crust”.
To carry out the study, the researchers focused on analyze the earthquakes produced in Türkiye in the past February 6thwhich caused the death of more than 50,000 people in the country and shot down a total of more than 100,000 buildings.
With a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richte scaler, the mainshock of the February 6th caused a break in 310 kilometers long in the falla (fracture in the earth’s crust) left of the area of the Anatolia Orientalwhich later spread to multiple steps. This was followed another earthquakethis time more to west and with a magnitude of 7.6. Two weeks later, the February 20tha third occurred, with a shaking of 6.4.
Once the analysis was done, the researchers plotted the data from seismic activity and displacements along the faults. With these analyzes they have observed that one of the territories of Türkiye, known as distrito de Pütürge, sample seismic activity along the faultbut there is no displacement or breaks.
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This fact means that part of said fault is “Blocked or Stuck”so it is likely that at some point future will slide As the USC geophysicist declares, Sylvain Bardot for a piece published in the university outlet, ‘USC News,’ “We don’t know the moment, but we know where it can happen.”
“The population must be prepared”
This new earthquake is estimated to reach a magnitude of 6.8and although it is a phenomenon inevitablethey can be prevent the effects. For this reason, Bardor warns that “The population must be prepared for this, but also the scientific community.” He also hopes that they will be given the opportunity to “set up a monitoring experiment to see how an earthquake starts and ends”.
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