A deformation, i.e. a rift that extends for 300 kilometers along the East Anatolian fault, was caused by the earthquake that occurred on February 6 between Turkey and Syria. “The two plates, the Arabic one and the Anatolian one, have moved by three metres, but the energy released by the fault has caused a very strong deformation along 300 kilometers”, seismologist Aybige Akinci, of the National Institute of of Geophysics and Volcanology (Ingv).
The deformation occurred in correspondence with the fault segment that ruptured. “Starting from the epicenter, the energy released reached a distance of 300 kilometers,” she added. The East Anatolian fault, between 600 and 700 kilometers long, is one of the main existing in Turkey, together with the North Anatolian one, 1,500 kilometers long: “they are two important faults, well defined and along which important historical earthquakes have occurred” and in points where the two earthquakes of February, of magnitude 7.8 and 7.5, occurred, “there have not been such important earthquakes for over a thousand years”, observed the expert. “These are areas where earthquakes were expected to occur, but if it is possible to understand where an earthquake may occur, it is impossible to predict when it will occur.”
Source: Ansa
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