Researchers know a lot about Turkey’s next major earthquake. They can pinpoint the probable epicenter, estimate its strength and see the spatial footprint of where damage is most likely to occur.
Researchers know a lot about Turkey’s next major earthquake. They can pinpoint the probable epicenter, estimate its strength and see the spatial footprint of where damage is most likely to occur.
They just can’t say when it will happen.
That’s the main takeaway from a new USC-led study that appears in Seismica.
Using remote sensing, USC geophysicist Sylvain Barbot and his fellow researchers documented the massive Feb. 6 quake that killed more than 50,000 people in Eastern Turkey and toppled more than 100,000 buildings.
Alarmingly, researchers found that a section of the fault remains unbroken and locked—a sign that the plates there may, when friction intensifies, generate another magnitude 6.
