What does Turkey move 3 meters to the west due to earthquakes?

The head of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Professor Carlo Doglione, said that the earthquakes that struck Turkey caused the country (the Anatolian plate) to move 3 meters to the west. what does that mean?

Since the 1939 Erzincan earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed nearly 33,000 people, neither Turkey nor the region has witnessed an earthquake as strong as the one that occurred at dawn on Monday in the state of Kahramanmaraş, leaving massive destruction in 10 cities and more than 16,000 dead, and what More than 63,000 infected people.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, and was followed by a storm of aftershocks that numbered more than 1,300 tremors, the head of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Professor Carlo Doglione, said that the earthquakes that struck Turkey caused the country (Anatolia plate) to move 3 meters. westward.

While Doglioni indicated that the current estimates indicate the displacement of the plate by 3 meters, but the final information will be obtained after reviewing the satellite data . The rift is the one that moved this amount, explaining at the same time: "If Turkey had moved, we would have seen a ground fault cutting Turkey from north to south."

How does an earthquake happen?

Before we dive into the statements of Doglioni and Chiengur, we must first know how an earthquake occurs, which the US Geological Survey describes as “the shaking of the ground caused by a sudden slip in a fault. Stresses in the outer layer of the Earth push the sides of the fault together. Stress builds up and the plate suddenly slides, releasing Energy in waves travels through the Earth's crust and causes the vibration that we feel during an earthquake."

In a previous report , we mentioned that the earth's crust is divided into 20 tectonic plates, of which seven are major, floating over rocky magma. While geologists agree that 15 out of 20 of these plates are mobile, and in friction with each other, earthquakes and volcanoes arise.

Turkey is located within a seismically active geographic region, much of which lies on the Anatolian Plate, which is a small mass of crust sandwiched between four other plates, including the Arabian Plate to the southeast, which is heading northwest, and the much larger Eurasian Plate to the north, which is moving To the southeast (see map).

If we take the recent Kahramanmaraş earthquake as an example, we find that the two earthquakes that struck the state on Monday, with a magnitude of 7.8 and 7.6 on the Richter scale, occurred on the East Anatolian fault, which is the second most dangerous fault among the three faults that pass through Turkish territory, which in turn moves with The Arabian plate is on the northwestern axis, which led to one sliding under the other, and with the accumulation of tension as a result of this friction, the devastating Kahramanmaraş earthquake occurred with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale.

"As if the turkey moved 3 meters"

The Italian scientist said that they believed that the Anatolian plate, where the fault line lies, had moved at least three meters in the north-east-south-west direction compared to the Arabian plate, and he drew attention to the fact that this movement took place in 30-40 seconds.

The Italian scientist confirmed that seismic activity was very high in the region throughout history, and said, "It is as if Turkey moved."

For his part, Shingur said during his participation in the live broadcast on TV100: "The fact that the fault moved three meters does not mean that Turkey has moved three meters. This three-meter movement fades away at the end of the fault."

To see, he claims, three meters of movement on the surface, Sheengur added, one must see a crack "tearing the country from one end to the other".

"cosmic catastrophe"

CNN Turk quoted experts as saying that the earthquakes that struck 10 cities are twice the acceleration of gravity. Noting that this destructive effect is "abnormally large," the experts said: "Such an earthquake occurred in Pazardzhik in the year 1500. At that time it was called a 'cosmic catastrophe'. These earthquakes are exactly the same. Fault fragments, which accumulated on it The pressures of 500 years, shattered."

While Dr. Bulent Ozmen, an academic in disaster management at the Turkish Gazi University, said: "It is not uncommon for two large earthquakes to occur on the eastern Anatolian fault every hour. We have witnessed a very rare event in the form of a 'seismic storm.'" He continued, "Turkey has 550 active faults that have the capacity to to cause earthquakes.

In a related context, former faculty member of Karadeniz Technical University (KTU) Professor Osman Bektaş said: "These earthquakes not only cause destruction on the surface, but also cause energy distribution underground and cause environmental damage."