Kahramanmaras Earthquake
Three recent earthquakes have devastated Turkey and Syria. The intensity of these earthquakes on the Richter scale has been marked as 7.8, 7.6 and 6.0.
The first tremors were felt around 4 a.m. on 6 February, with the epicenter near the city of Gaziantep in south-central Turkey.
According to the information of February 7, more than 4300 people have died due to this earthquake.
Let us tell you that due to the tremors of the earthquake, the land of Turkey has been trembling again and again. According to the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), around 33,000 earthquakes were recorded in the region in 2020 alone.
Key causes of earthquake in Turkey –
Tectonic Plate
- Turkey’s frequent earthquakes are due to its tectonic location.
- The outermost layer of the Earth consists of about 15 major slabs, called tectonic plates.
- The boundaries between these plates are a system of faults, which are fractures between two blocks of rock.
- Any sudden movement along these faults can cause an earthquake.
- According to one estimate, about 95% of Turkey’s landmass is vulnerable to earthquakes, while about a third of the country is in a high-risk zone, including the major cities of Istanbul and Izmir, and the region of Eastern Anatolia.
Anatolian Tectonic Plate
- Turkey lies on the Anatolian tectonic plate, which lies between the Eurasian and African plates.
- To the north, the smaller Arabian plate restricts further movement.
- Another fault line—the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) line, which is the meeting point of the Eurasian and Anatolian tectonic plates—is known to be particularly destructive.
- The NAF stretches from south of Istanbul to northeastern Turkey, and has been the cause of devastating earthquakes in the past.
- In 1999 itself, it caused two earthquakes of magnitude 7.4 and 7.0 in Golcuk and Dews provinces.
- Then there is the East Anatolian fault line, which is the tectonic boundary between the Anatolian Plate and the northward-moving Arabian Plate.
- It extends for 650 kilometers from eastern Turkey and up to the Mediterranean Sea.
- In addition, the Aegean Sea Plate, located in the eastern Mediterranean under southern Greece and western Turkey, is also a source of seismic activity in the region.
Source – Hindustan Times
