Monitoring Desk: Turkish earthquake of February 6, was a magnitude 7.8 out of 10 on the moment magnitude scale (MMS) that has shaken tectonic plates.
Modern seismologists use the moment magnitude scale, which represents the amount of energy released by an earthquake (the Richter scale is outdated, though is sometimes wrongly quoted in the news).
According to the Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience, Pakistan is split along the boundary between the Eurasian and Indian plates where the Indian plate slides northward relative to the Eurasia plate in the east. The Eurasian Plate is also being shoved by the Arabia plate as it subducts northward beneath the Eurasia plate along the boundary south of this map. These motions typically result in north-south to northeast-southwest strike-slip motion.
Turkey lies at the intersection of three of the tectonic plates: Anatolian, Arabian and African plates. Arabia is moving northwards into Europe, causing the Anatolian plate (which Turkey sits on) to be pushed out westwards.
Dr. Susan Hough believes the latest earthquake is likely to have happened on one of the major faults that mark the boundaries between the Anatolian and Arabian plates: either the East Anatolian fault or the Dead Sea Transform fault. These are both “strike-slip faults”, which means they accommodate some motion of plates moving past each other.
The finite-fault model starts to take shape, indicating the fault segment that moved in today’s #earthquake Lots more work to be done on this. pic.twitter.com/UhxBNXwUtY
— Dr. Susan Hough 🦖 (@SeismoSue) February 6, 2023
The Himalayan chain is primarily resulting from the north-south collision of Eurasian plates. The resulting consuming margin extends from Pakistan through India, Nepal and Myanmar. To the west of this collision zone, a consuming boundary is present between the Arabian and Persian plates. During the collision process, the sedimentary overburden detached from the crystalline basement of the Indian Shield. The sea floor of Neo-Tethys is preserved as Bela-Waziristan Ophiolite Zone.
Experts believe that pressure on the Eurasian plate can result in its moving that would definitely result in trimmers if not full-scale earthquakes in areas situated on this plate.
#İstanbul a Powerful 7.8
Another 7.5
#earthquake
Dutch Researcher also predicted about Pakistan and Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/sXL5uT6g1E— Muhammad Zain ul Abidin (@xainiii007u) February 6, 2023
