Hours ago, the Turkish province of Hatay was hit by a new earthquake of 6.4 degrees on the Richter scale, which reinforced a wave of news that had already spread since the day of the main earthquake on February 6, saying that countries on the Mediterranean might soon experience a large tsunami.

What is a tsunami?

Let's first start by defining a tsunami. It is a series of huge waves that look like huge walls of water, sometimes up to 30 meters high, resulting from a disturbance that occurs mainly underwater.

The waves often hit the shoreline and are dangerous for hours, with waves coming every 5 to 60 minutes.

Contrary to what cinema depicts, the first wave may not be the largest, and the second, third, fourth, or even subsequent waves are often the largest.

There are various reasons for the occurrence of tsunamis, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides in the water, and the fall of comets into the oceans or seas.

Tsunami terms

As for earthquakes, they can indeed generate tsunamis through sudden movements of the ground under or near the water, and consequently sudden movements of the water column in the ocean or sea, but not all earthquakes cause tsunamis.

According to the US Geological Survey, not all earthquakes cause tsunamis, but there are several conditions necessary for an earthquake to cause a tsunami, the first of which is that the earthquake must occur under or near the ocean.

In addition, the earthquake must be strong, as most tsunamis are generated by earthquakes of magnitude greater than 7.

In general, the magnitude of the earthquake must exceed 8.0 to generate a dangerous tsunami at the same time.

In addition, for the occurrence of a tsunami, the earthquake must cause a vertical movement of the sea floor up to several meters, and not all earthquakes cause this, as some of them push the marine plates horizontally, not vertically.

In view of what happened in Turkey, the first major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8, which occurred on February 6, was far from the sea, while the current earthquake, although it was somewhat close to the sea, is mainly of medium strength (6.4 degrees).

In addition, the movement of the East Anatolian Fault that causes earthquakes is usually horizontal rather than vertical, in addition to the fact that the seas usually witness tsunamis at much lower rates and more complex conditions than the oceans.

So, all of the above makes it highly likely that there is no chance of a tsunami occurring in the Mediterranean after the Turkey earthquake.