Geologists, Seismologists and Geographers united once again on Sunday with the international-scale news of the recent earthquake in Turkey. 7.2 in magnitude, but was to be expected?
Well, the Arabian and Eurasian Plate converges at approximatly 24mm/year; the focus of Sunday's earthquake was very near to this region of convergence. In addition to this, and more of a contributing factor, is the Anatolian strike-slip faulting system. This particular earthquake, therefore, is an example of a 'compression' based one and to me, the nearby Zagros fold belt system could suggest that the fault contributing to Sunday's seismic event was a 'thurst' based one. 'Thrust' faults are a type of reverse fault (a dip-slip fault as opposed to a strike slip one) but the dip is less than 45 degrees. They are associated with orogenesis processes, such as the Zagros fold belt, and their displacement can be km long, suggesting the large magnitude of Turkey's earthquake; it's largest for some time.
Newspapers report but seldom do they give geographers the real image of the seismtectonics behind an earthquake. The USGS, who investigates the most catastrophic of natural disasters, has a really good website. For those who like visuals, they have produced up to 10 maps of the Turkey earthquake, and have included a range of measurements which, for me, will keep the half term break very interesting indeed!
By the way, as a kind of P.S: if you are studying demographics at the moment (population) I don't know if you caught ITV News at Ten last night. I just happened to be going downstairs and found both my parents fast asleep-(they usually are at this time.) But on the TV, the News at Ten team were doing a special bulletin about the world's population. Tonight, I think they are doing one about China's One Child Policy. Do watch out for it! (Even if you are busy on the USGS website!!)
hmm little harsh on the 'ol codgers i feel!
ReplyDeleteprob cream crackered after another loooonnngggg trip!!