The earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria this month not only killed more than 40,000 people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings, but they also had a visible impact on the earth’s crust. According to a statement from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), a 250-kilometer-long strip has fractured, showing ground displacements of up to six meters. The largest fractures were found in the southern area, coincident with the main magnitude 7.8 earthquake that occurred in the early morning hours of February 6. They also observed a secondary rupture strip to the north, caused by the second earthquake of magnitude 7.5, which occurred in the morning of the same day.
The researchers based their estimates on satellite images captured by the Copernicus mission and the Sentinel-1 probe. By comparing an image from January 29 with one taken on February 10, the researchers have created an image in which the displacement can be seen.
The region where the earthquakes occurred belongs geologically to the East Anatolian fault, where the Anatolian and Arabian plates collide, creating stresses in the earth’s crust that were released during the earthquakes. Using Sentinel-1 services, researchers from the UK’s Centre for Observation and Modeling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tectonics (COMET) found even larger rifts: a main one about 300 kilometers long running northeast from the northeastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and a parallel one about 125 kilometers long running west to east.
The movement of the tectonic plates that triggered the earthquakes was so strong that cracks are clearly visible on the surface, running through towns and buildings. In some cases, the cracks cut through buildings. The magnitude of ground displacements is greater than normally seen in earthquakes, indicating the power of the earthquakes.