6.4 magnitude tremor separate quake, not aftershock: Experts

ISTANBUL

The 6.4 magnitude earthquake in the southern province of Hatay was not an aftershock of the Feb. 6 quakes, but an independent tremor induced by them, experts have stated.

After two major quakes centered on Kahramanmaraş, in which thousands of people lost their lives, Hatay was shaken by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake on Feb. 20, some questions regarding the character of the new tremors have emerged.

Cenk Yaltırak from Istanbul Technical University stated that the tremor centered in Hatay’s Defne district was not an aftershock of the Feb. 6 quakes.

“The area of the last earthquake is on the eastern side of the Antakya graben, where there are faults between two and 16 kilometers. Therefore, it was not an aftershock. This earthquake is a separate earthquake,” Yaltırak explained.

Such earthquakes located in this area are the product of transferred stress, he stated, adding that there are large and small faults in the region that will produce medium-sized tremors.

“Some buildings which were heavily damaged by the first quakes may be collapsed,” he added.

“A large fault passing through the sea off Samandağ has been broken. This earthquake occurred at the intersection of the southern end of the fault that created the last major earthquake of 7.7 and the fault zone that we call the Cyprus Arc,” expert Ramazan Demirtaş said.

Reminding about the Zaferburnu seismic gap in the region, the two sequential big quakes on Feb. 6 induced some faults with a seismic gap, Demirtaş noted.

Geoscientist Naci Görür stated that this earthquake was already expected as there was a stress accumulation after the earthquakes on Feb. 6.

Görür added that he expects moderate and large earthquakes in Adana and Cyprus in the following period.