Dozens of strong aftershocks are occurring after the two earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 on the Richter scale that shook southeastern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday morning. The epicenters of both earthquakes —located in Turkish territory, some 600 kilometers southeast of Ankara, the Turkish capital, and 100 kilometers north of Aleppo (Syria)— are in an area of high seismic intensity, where tectonic plates converge. of Anatolia and Arabia. At the moment, there are confirmed 5,000 deaths and more than 20,000 injuries in the area. This Tuesday, a new earthquake of magnitude 5.7 has shaken the east of the country, as reported by the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center.
The shock has been felt in several neighboring countries, such as Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus and Jordan.
An area with high seismic activity
Turkey is located in one of the most active earthquake zones on the planet. Although it is not part of the so-called “ring of fire”, a seismic belt that runs along the edge of the Pacific Ocean, it is a region of high activity because it is the place where the Anatolian tectonic plate and the Arabian plate come into contact.
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In the last hundred years, nine earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 7.5 on the Richter scale have been recorded in the area, adding up to about 50 earthquakes of a magnitude equal to or greater than 7.
The two major seismic movements that have shaken the region are the strongest recorded since the great Erzincan earthquake in 1939, a massive 7.8 magnitude quake that killed nearly 30,000 people in the country.
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