More earthquakes could strike quake-ravaged Turkey following Monday’s deadly quake in the region, leading seismologists have warned. A magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit the Turkey-Syria border on Monday, killing at least six people and sending panic through the region two weeks after the area was devastated by quakes that killed more than 47,000 people in both countries. As the death toll keeps climbing, earthquake experts have raised the alarm bell, saying more aftershocks could be on the way.
Dr Susan Hough, a leading scientist who oversees the US earthquake-monitoring agency USGC, told Express.co.uk there “remains a one-in-ten chance” another earthquake of magnitude 7 could occur in the region.
She said: “Unfortunately, the aftershock sequence is expected to continue. The numbers will drop over time but there remains a chance for larger events.
“Calculations indicate a 1-in-10 chance of another aftershock as large as magnitude 7 over the month starting 10 February, and that magnitude 5 and 6 aftershocks remain likely to occur during this period.”
According to Ziyadin Cakir of Turkey’s Istanbul Technical University, there is no tool or scientific methodology to predict when earthquakes or aftershocks will stop in the country.
He told reporters: “Aftershocks and other earthquakes like yesterday may not only occur in the same areas but also take place elsewhere like in Malatya [in the north] where there are fault lines – on which stress increased from these massive earthquakes.
“It’s a huge crisis and it’s not over yet.”
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A Dutch researcher had earlier predicted that the very first earthquake to hit the region with the exact location. Dutch seismologist Frank Hoogerbeets, who works for the Solar System Geometry Survey (SSGS) in the Netherlands, predicted the earthquake in Turkey on February 3.
Three days before a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey, the Dutch researcher tweeted: “Sooner or later there will be a magnitude 7.5 earthquake in this region (South-Central Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon).”
Dr Hoogerbeets now predicts aftershocks are imminent: “This could be a bit more critical in the coming days – February 21 or 22. The rule of thumb is that we add two days and then give or take one day approximately.”
