KOR
▲ A ship sails through the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, Türkiye.
More than 50 earthquakes were detected near Türkiye's largest city of Istanbul overnight, Anadolu Agency reported on the 21st local time.
According to the latest data from Türkiye's Disaster and Management Authority (AFAD), more than 50 earthquakes occurred in the Sea of Marmara from 1:00 p.m. on the 19th until the morning of the 20th.
Most of them had a magnitude of 3.0 or lower, with the strongest being a magnitude 3.2 earthquake recorded at 5:43 p.m. on the 19th.
The focal depth was estimated to be about 7 to 15 kilometers.
Okan Tüysüz, a professor at Istanbul Technical University (ITU), drew a line by stating that "this cannot be considered a precursor to a major earthquake," but analyzed that it demonstrates how the North Anatolian Fault zone around the Sea of Marmara and Istanbul remains active and capable of generating earthquakes.
Professor Tüysüz added that as stress exerted by the tectonic plates accumulates, the fault is fracturing little by little.
Professor Tüysüz had previously predicted at a seminar in February that a strong earthquake of magnitude 7.0 or higher would eventually strike the Sea of Marmara region.
Mehmet Fatih Altan, a professor at Istanbul Arel University, noted that it is fortunate the recent series of earthquakes were mostly under magnitude 3.0, stating, "If they had been around magnitude 4.0 to 5.0, we would have had to be more cautious."
Surrounded by multiple tectonic plates, Türkiye experiences constant minor and major earthquakes.
The North Anatolian Fault, located along Türkiye's northern Black Sea coastline, is the boundary between the Eurasian plate and the Anatolian plate.
The East Anatolian Fault, where the Anatolian and Arabian plates meet, is located in the southeastern region of Türkiye near the Syrian border. In February 2023, powerful earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 struck this area consecutively, killing more than 50,000 people.
Previously, a research team led by Patricia Martínez-Garzón of the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) projected in a report published in the journal Science that an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 or greater could occur in the Sea of Marmara.
Researchers at the ITU Marmara Active Fault Hazard Application and Research Center (MATAM) also mentioned that tectonic energy has been accumulating in the Sea of Marmara for a long time, raising the possibility of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake.
(Photo: Getty Images)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.
