Monitoring Desk
TOKYO: A Japanese earthquake expert fears that Turkiye and other neighboring countries in the Middle East could see further powerful earthquakes of the same powerful magnitude as the recent 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Syria and Turkiye at dawn on Monday.
In interviews with local media and in an article, YAGI Yoji, professor of seismology at the University of Tsukuba and an expert in faults, said, “There are several fault lines near the epicenter of this quake where the northeastern Anatolian plates connect with the Arabian plate, and this leads to the establishment of a tectonic structure between them.
The stress accumulates, and when it reaches extreme tension, these plates collide with each other, releasing massive energy-causing shifts in the layers of the earth, leading to an earthquake.”
Japanese expert warns of same massive quakes in future
“In the future, earthquakes of the same powerful magnitude are likely to occur,” Yagi predicted. He reminded that in January 2020, a 6.7-magnitude earthquake occurred near the East Anatolian Fault, and several people died due to building collapses.
In 1939, a magnitude 7.8 quake occurred in eastern Erzincan, killing over 30,000 people. There were also other quakes that killed around 17,000 people.
According to an analysis by the US Geological Survey, the depth of the epicenter of Monday’s first quake – 7.8 on the Richter scale – was 17.9 kilometers under the surface of the earth. It further said the depth of the epicenter of the second quake –7.5 on the Richter scale – was 10 kilometers below the surface of the earth. Because the two quakes occurred at a relatively shallow depth, the earth shook violently near their epicenters and caused devastation over large areas.
