Fault lines crisscrossing Turkey

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Energy Minister Taner Yıldız (L) introduces the updated version of Turkey’s Map of Active Fault Lines at a press conference in Ankara and compares the two versions. AA photo

Any earthquake in the Marmara Sea would not cause a tidal wave, a Turkish official has said. There is no risk to the third Bosphorus bridge either, since it will not be constructed on a live fault line, Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said, introducing the updated version of Turkey’s Map of Active Fault Lines at a press conference yesterday.

“With the updated map, we learned that Turkey had 326 active fault lines, not 150,” the minister said
They can see where risk is low, and where it is high, the minister said, adding that they could not predict quakes.

“According to the map, there are 485 segments on Turkey’s main land which can produce earthquakes with magnitudes of 5.5 or above,” the minister said.

Bridges, railways and pipelines should not be built on live fault lines, he said. “Therefore there is a protection zone on live fault lines and where any strategic building, dam or pond cannot be constructed.”



In central Istanbul, such as Bakırköy or Beyoğlu, there are no active fault lines, the minister said.
Citing fault lines activate in the Marmara region in 1766 and 1894, the minister rejected estimations about dates for an upcoming quake in the Marmara region. With arithmetical calculations it was not possible to locate or predict the date of an earthquake, Yıldız said. “Their time curves differ.”

Elaborating on possible effects of fault map on planned nuclear power plants, Yıldız said the plants’ would be in an area earthquakes would not affect and where the surface would not be deformed.
He said the nuclear plant which would be constructed in Akkuyu was not on any fault line.

The second plant would also be constructed according to a certain ratio of security calculated according to predetermined ground motions on the plant over a possible quake epicenter of 100 kilometers and 500 kilometers away, the minister said.

The Akkuyu nuclear plant would be designed considering an earthquake with magnitude of 9, he noted.

He also mentioned the Metsamor nuclear power plant near Turkish border in Armenia.