Slashdot reader Jarik C-Bol shared a Space.com article about “the two huge cracks” in the Earth’s crust that opened up near the Turkish-Syrian border after two powerful earthquakes on Monday:
Newly available Maxar satellite imagery shows several hundred meters long surface rupture with horizontal displacements up to 4m near Nurdağı, Gaziantep province, Turkey. pic.twitter.com/3JVZTTHrk1
— Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) February 9, 2023
Researchers from the UK’s Center for Earthquake, Volcano and Tectonics Observation and Modeling (COMET) found the ruptures by comparing images of the near-coastal area of the Mediterranean Sea taken by the European Earth-observing satellite “Sentinel-1” before and after the devastating earthquakes. The longer of the two ruptures stretches 190 miles (300 kilometers) in a northeasterly direction from the northeastern tip of the Mediterranean Sea. The rift was created by the first of two large tremors to hit the region on Monday, the more powerful 7.8 magnitude that struck at 4:17 a.m. local time (8:17 p.m. EST on Feb. 5). The second rift, 80 miles (125 km) long, opened during the second, somewhat milder magnitude 7.5 temblor, about nine hours ago.
NEW: @Maxar’s satellite imagery clearly reveals the multi-km-long surface rupture extending along the Gölbaşı-Türkoğlu segment of the East Anatolian Fault as a result of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in southern Turkey. pic.twitter.com/915oWD9b1E
— Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) February 13, 2023
“This seismic fault is one of the longest recorded across the continents,” the team leader told Space.com, adding that it was “very unusual for two such large earthquakes to occur within a few hours of each other.”
Surface rupture at Hassa Town. #earthquake #earthquake pic.twitter.com/klsw2zesYj
— OzdemirAlpay (@geodesist_a) February 8, 2023
More tweets about the disaster:
My first slip model of the #TurkeySyriaEarthquakesfrom #Sentinel1 range and azimuth offsets. It is very preliminary, and needs considerable refinement. Slip is higher on the northern fault, as other models and data have shown. Dips/rakes from the @USGS_Quakes W-phase solution. pic.twitter.com/jucjdbqcyo
— Dr Gareth Funning (@gfun) February 13, 2023
A pretty explanatory gif.
Think of the power needed to slice through hundreds of meters of solid ground in a matter of seconds. 300m long surface rupture north of Altınüzüm, Gaziantep Province, Turkey.
Credit: @Maxar pic.twitter.com/r9jemDKW9h
— Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) February 12, 2023
Here is a video about the failure that has left.
A drone video shows a large rift in Hatay province of Türkiye. This looks like it is a landslide triggered by the earthquake and not the main fault rupture. https://t.co/zgp0sXY3h0
— Dr. Eric J Fielding, PhD (@EricFielding) February 11, 2023
