Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria on February 20 were abnormally strong and are an “unpleasant symptom” that seismic activity in the region will drag on, scientists told Izvestia.
Seismologists believe that other countries located in the seismically hazardous zones of the Mediterranean are under threat: Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal.
They explained the abnormally long underground activity by the fact that in coastal zones the movement of lithospheric plates occurs more often and is felt more strongly than on the mainland. And the earthquake could have been triggered by the closest approach of the Moon and the Earth in 992 years, which occurred on January 21 – it caused an additional displacement of the plates, which led to a series of strong tremors.
According to the Deputy Director of the Institute of Physics of the Earth RAS for engineering seismology and seismic hazard assessment, head of the laboratory of strong earthquakes and seismometry Ruben Tatevosyan, in the source zone of the last earthquake, which stretches for several hundred kilometers, there will most likely be other tangible shocks.
“The events of February 20 took place in the same zone as the events of February 6. A strong earthquake is accompanied by subsequent shocks, which are determined by the magnitude of the main shock. If it was large, then the series lasts longer, and there are more powerful shocks in it. In the case of this extraordinary impact in its magnitude of 7.8, they can last for months, ”he explained.
Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:
Phase shift: in which countries the next earthquakes can occur