Context:
Three earthquakes measuring — 7.8, 7.6, and 6.0 — magnitude on the Richter scale have devastated Turkey and Syria.
Impact Caused by Earthquake:
- The historic 2,200-year-old stone castle sitting atop a hill in the centre of Gaziantep – its most famous landmark which was used as an observation point during Roman times – has been damaged, with its walls and watch towers disintegrated.
- One of the most prominent sites in Maltaya, the famous Yeni Mosque which dates back to the 13 th century, had collapsed.
What makes Turkey a hotbed of seismic activity?
- Turkey’s proneness to earthquakes comes from its tectonic location.
- The boundaries between these plates are a system of faults – fractures between two blocks of rocks. Any sudden movement along these faults can cause earthquakes.
- Turkey is located on the Anatolian tectonic plate, which is wedged between the Eurasian and African plates.
- On the north side, the minor Arabian plate further restricts movement.
- One fault line — the North Anatolian fault (NAF) line, the meeting point of the Eurasian and Anatolian tectonic plates — is known to be “particularly devastating”.
- Then there is the East Anatolian fault line, the tectonic boundary between the Anatolian Plate and the northward-moving Arabian Plate.
- In addition to this, the Aegean Sea Plate, located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea under southern Greece and western Turkey, is also a source of seismic activity in the region.
- According to one estimate, almost 95% of the country’s land mass is prone to earthquakes, while about a third of the country is at high risk, including the areas around the major cities of Istanbul and Izmir and the region of East Anatolia.
| Additional Information:
About Earthquakes:
- An earthquake happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another. The surface where they slip is called the fault or fault plane.
- The location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicentre.
Earthquake Prone Regions:
- The Ring of Fire: This is a horseshoe-shaped region along the Pacific Ocean that encircles the basin of the Pacific Ocean and is home to many active and potentially dangerous volcanoes and earthquake zones.
- Countries located on the Ring of Fire include Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the western coast of North America.
- The Mediterranean: The region around the Mediterranean Sea is seismically active and is located at the boundary between the African and Eurasian tectonic plates. Countries in this region, such as Greece, Italy, and Turkey, are prone to earthquakes.
- The Himalayas: The Himalayas are located at the boundary between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
- The region is prone to earthquakes and is at high risk for major earthquakes due to the large amount of seismic energy stored in the plates
- Submerged mid-Atlantic Ridge: The ridge marks where two tectonic plates are spreading apart (a divergent plate boundary).
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News Source: The Hindu
9 Feb 2023
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