E-Paper
Massive earthquakes move Turkey by 5-6 metres, claims seismologist
Turkey earthquakes: Over 16,000 people have died and more than 11,000 buildings - in addition to large swathes of major cities in both nations - have been destroyed.
The devastating earthquakes that jolted Turkey and Syria in the early hours of Monday may have moved tectonic plates - on which the former country sits - by as much as three feet (10 metres), an Italian seismologist has claimed. Professor Carlo Doglioni told Italy24 that initial estimates suggest the quakes may have led to Turkey having 'slipped by five to six metres compared to Syria'. A more accurate analysis is pending information from satellites, he said.
Turkey Syria earthquakes live coverage
Over 16,000 people have died and more than 11,000 buildings - in addition to large swathes of major cities in both nations - have been destroyed after five earthquakes and over 100 aftershocks hammered the area. Doglioni told Italy24 the quake caused a type of fault called 'shallow transcurrent' with a hypocenter - the deep place where the earthquake breaks out.
According to Doglioni, the multiple quakes are part of a single seismic sequence unleashed at the intersection of four plates that collide continuously - the Anatolian, Arabica, Eurasian and African plates - and accumulate energy till it casues the activation of a long fault.
"The massive laceration involved an area 190 km long and 25 km wide... violently shaking the ground and causing a sequence that reached the two most intense peaks (that were) nine hours apart," he said as he explained changes in the earthquake-affected areas.
Read here: Taiwan president to donate a month's salary for Turkey relief efforts
On the intensity of the earthquakes, he said that as a prolonged 'seismic epidemic', it could continue for days or months, if not years, as has happened in some cases in the past.
Meanwhile, a search-and-rescue official said that the time is running out for survivors buried in earthquake rubble to be found, as search efforts near the crucial 72-hour mark.
Ilan Kelman, a professor of disasters and health at University College London, said that over 90 per cent of earthquake victims are rescued within the first three days, the report added.
