What's going on? Tremors in Western Turkey.

[PhotoLady]

All seems to be centred around one particular area (the Interactive Maps View puts it more in perspective) - very strange that none of my Turkish stamp collectors have commented on it? It's not like it's a totally unpopulated area..... odd indeed :-/
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/ear ... 567943#map

[Devil]

This is nothing. They are all very minor tremors that happen constantly in that region; probably not even felt by local inhabitants. The whole of the Dardanelles is an unstable region. The Bosporus formed from a major one aeons ago. What is much more worrying is the N. Anatolian fault line, which is an active source of major quakes (mag. 7+). Over the past century, there have been several major quakes, firstly in E Turkey and then more to the W each time. Seismologists predict that the next major one may be near Istanbul ±50 km, but they can't say when.

Though estimates differ widely, many experts have warned that Istanbul has at least a 50 percent chance of suffering a massive earthquake in the next two decades. Given the city’s housing stock, a quake could kill over 50,000 people and leave another 500,000 without homes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wor ... errorists/

Also read http://www.livescience.com/47827-turkey ... c-gap.html

[Dominic]

From the short title I assumed somebody else was commenting on the arcade icons that mysteriously appear every now and then.

[cyprusmax47]

Don't think that a 5.0 tremor at 10 km depth is that minor....
could be also a built up to a bigger one, who knows?

[PhotoLady]

I agree with Austin7, I used to regularly monitor the "earthquakes near me" during the years we lived in Cyprus and I've never seen such activity in the same proximity for a prolonged period of time....

[Devil]

A series of minor tremors like these is an indication that the subduction is gradual and the pressure is being constantly relieved, so that a major quake is less likely. The problem with the N. Anatolian fault is that this does not happen; the pressure builds up and builds up until WHAM! Catastrophe! We know that the pressure is building up near Istanbul and it is possible that the big un may happen at any time (but most likely in the next 2 decades). The later it is, the more damage will be done.

And what about the Cyprian Arc faultline south of this island? At the moment, it is reasonably quiet and a big un is unlikely in the next few decades but do remember that there have been really bad uns that have caused major destruction in the past. Curium was destroyed in the 4th century and, today, at Salamis, skin divers can see the quays lined with amphorae where the land has subducted about 3 m. The ancient port of Kition is now about 1 km inland and the Larnaca salt lakes date from about 300 BCE (before that, they were an estuary with an important port not far from the Tekke).

[PhotoLady]

Give it a couple of months Devil.... The Cyprian Arc usually gives herself a bit of a shake down when she wakes from her winter slumbers around April time

[cyprusmax47]

What is interesting that the small tremors are now very shallow, only 2 km many of them,
area still moving..

[JimX]

It was not a minor shake go take a look at Sky news...Just off Lesbos a lot of building damaged.

https://www.google.com.cy/url?sa=t&rct= ... zc_YAYBzXQ

[JimX]

I wasn't referring to any members post in particular Austin, and why add my photo again? just taking up bandwidth.