Seismologist Claims Earthquakes In Turkey Moved The Country By 5-6 Metres

The powerful earthquakes that struck Turkey on Monday may have moved the tectonic plates it sits on by upto three feet (10 metres), an expert has claimed. Italian seismologist Professor Carlo Doglioni has told a local news outlet that as a result, Turkey could even have "slipped by five to six metres compared to Syria" towards the west. More than 11,200 people have been killed in the earthquakes that also damaged several buildings in both Turkey and Syria. Both the countries kept experiencing multiple aftershocks and earthquakes after Monday's events, which further scared people.

Also Read | What We Know About The Turkey And Syria Earthquake So Far

Speaking about the strong quakes, Professor Doglioni told Italy 24 that the quake caused generated a type of fault that seismologists call "shallow transcurrent" with a hypocenter - the deep place where it breaks out.

"In other words, Turkey in the estimates has actually slipped by five to six meters compared to Syria," he added. The president of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (Ingv), however, added that this was all based on initial data, and more exact information would be available from satellites in the coming days.

Talking about the changes in the earthquake-affected region, Professor Doglioni said, "The massive laceration involved an area 190 kilometres long and 25 wide, violently shaking the ground and causing a sequence that reached the two most intense peaks nine hours apart. But in reality the earth continued to tremble and to destroy with often significant intensity, around 5-6 degrees on the Richter scale. Meanwhile, an infinite number of minor jolts have also been added."

Later, talking to Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, Professor Doglioni said that everything happened in a matter of few seconds.

"The two flaps moved relative to each other. In other words: it is as if Turkey had moved relative to the Arabian plate towards the Southwest. We are talking about a highly seismic area, one of the most dangerous areas in the Mediterranean. In the past centuries there have been extremely violent earthquakes," the seismologist said.

Time was running out for survivors buried in the rubble of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, as search efforts near the crucial 72-hour mark, a rescue response expert said on Wednesday.

More than 90 per cent of earthquake survivors are rescued within the first three days, said Ilan Kelman, a professor of disasters and health at University College London.

"Generally, earthquakes do not kill people, collapsing infrastructure kills people," said Mr Kelman, who has published research on quake rescue responses.

The most pressing factor is getting medical attention to people crushed under collapsed buildings before "their bodies fail" or they bleed out, he said.

Dozens of countries, including India, have sent their rescue teams and relief material to Turkey and Syria to find the survivors and minimise the loss.