Scientists told whether the cataclysm in Turkey is connected with global geoanomalies

Earthquake shift detected at the site of the earthquake in Turkey by 3 meters

A catastrophic earthquake continues on the Anatolian Peninsula, which began on February 6 – two days after the first tremors with a power of 7.8, the magnitude of the so-called “aftershocks” is over 5 points. While rescuers clear the rubble that still holds hundreds of people and economists assess the damage, seismologists are adjusting forecasts based on changes in the terrain. Thus, the shift of the earth’s crust along the border of the Arabian and Anatolian plates amounted to 3-5 meters.

According to the President of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology of Italy, Carlo Doglioni, for at least 150 km, the Arabian plate has moved relative to the Anatolian in the direction “northeast – southwest”. And it happened in just a few tens of seconds. According to Doglioni, this is one of the reasons for the abundant aftershocks.

Recall that, according to the director of the Russian Institute for the Theory of Earthquake Prediction of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Petr Shebalin, the scale of the current earthquake in Turkey causes a long burst of tectonic activity. And the shallow occurrence of their epicenter (2-7 kilometers from the earth’s surface) means that deep waves capable of reaching Moscow and other areas remote from the epicenters should not be expected.

Nevertheless, on the ground – in addition to the obvious horrors of the houses destroyed as a result of the earthquake – eyewitnesses observe impressive pictures of the shift of the earth’s surface by several meters. In particular, relative to each other, some railways and motor roads are displaced by 3–5 meters, passing perpendicular to the direction of the shift. As specialists in the construction and restoration of railways told MK, the restoration of the entire structure of the track, including the pillow and the rail-sleeper grid, will require a complete reconstruction of the road in a segment of 500-1000 meters: this is necessary to smooth out the “step” without violating the limit curve radii. Such work in some cases can take many weeks and even months.

Shifts of lithospheric plates over a distance of several meters are perceived by seismologists quite calmly. Moreover, this is an inevitable consequence of the mutual movement of lithospheric plates at their junctions on land. According to Professor of Moscow State University, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Nikolai Koronovsky, the theory of lithospheric plates was put forward in the 1960s after a series of discoveries in marine geology. The detected magnetic anomalies were theoretically explained by the fact that the continents do not stand still, as was previously assumed, but shift relative to each other.

– Many did not believe in it, – Koronovsky emphasized. – If the West immediately accepted this concept, then we resisted for a long time, we were brought up on platform geology – which was developed by such scientists as academicians Karpinsky, Shatsky. They said: first prove that they move. With the help of satellite navigation, it was established that everything was moving as predicted. Everything fell into place.

Over the past half century, new research methods have been developed – in particular, seismic tomography has allowed scientists to “look” to the level of the upper mantle. It became known that the oceanic crust “subducts”, that is, sinks at the junctions due to shifts in the lithospheric plates. Then, having reached the boundary of the outer core of the Earth, the substance rises up – and large volcanic fields are formed.

– A forecast was made of what will happen in hundreds of millions of years, – Nikolai Koronovsky explained. – The Atlantic will expand, and Australia, which is moving the fastest, almost 5 cm per year, will at some point “collide” with the Philippines, as a result, a new continent may appear. And Europe, like us, is moving northeast at a speed of about 2 cm per year, Arabia is also moving north at 2 cm per year. It also presses on the Eastern Pontus and the so-called Alpine belt. As a result, the Caucasus is shrinking, hence the earthquakes in this zone. Africa is moving north and the Mediterranean may be closing…

Thus, scientists do not find anything abnormal in such a shift. Moreover, much larger displacements were recorded in history – for example, after the earthquake in Neftegorsk in 1995, a displacement along the fault of more than 8 meters was recorded in the north of Sakhalin.