ISTANBUL, Feb 9 – A new powerful earthquake may occur soon in the area of Turkey’s Canakkale port in the Sea of Marmara due to increased seismic activity there, Turkish seismologist Dogan Perincek told Sputnik on Thursday.
On Monday morning, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit southeastern Turkey, toppling thousands of homes. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it was the most powerful quake since 1939. Another earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck the country later in the day.
“For the past 10 days, I have been recording increased seismic activity in Canakkale from the direction of the Sea of Marmara. I have been engaged in daily monitoring and analysis of seismic activity in the country using special maps for more than 10 years. For three years now, I have been predicting an earthquake in Canakkale,” the scientist said.
According to Perincek’s estimates, a fault passing through the area triggers an earthquake of about magnitude 7 once every 250 years, and the last earthquake in the area took place 287 years ago.
“The time has come, tremors can begin there at any moment. My observations in the Sea of Marmara confirm this assumption,” the seismologist said.
Over 12,000 people were killed as a result of the latest earthquakes in Turkey and another 62,937 were injured, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said earlier in the day. In Syria, also affected by the quakes, 1,200 people were killed and over 2,000 were injured.
