Yojiro Yamamoto, deputy senior researcher at JAMSTEC, said of the large earthquake in southern Turkey, "Japan's inland earthquakes are caused by the subduction of the ocean-side plate, which exerts force on the land-side plate. In southern Turkey, on the other hand, the plates collide perpendicularly, so the force is applied directly near the boundary, which makes it more than ten times more likely to accumulate strain than the active faults inland Japan. ” points out.
As a result, he said, ``In Turkey, the interval between occurrences is shorter than inland earthquakes in Japan, and the number of earthquakes occurs more frequently in the region.''
The East Anatolian Fault, which runs near the epicenter of this earthquake, has been evaluated as the area with the highest risk of earthquakes, along with the North Anatolian Fault, which runs through northern Turkey, where large earthquakes have occurred in the past. Since then, there have been five earthquakes with a magnitude of 6 or higher, but no large-scale earthquakes occurred at this location.Although it cannot be said to be a blank area, there was an M7-class earthquake more than 200 years ago. was occurring, and it is believed that considerable strain had accumulated underground."
In addition, he said that the energy of this earthquake (6 days, magnitude 7.8) was 16 times that of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, and said, "There is a risk that an inland earthquake of this scale will occur in Japan as well." In Turkey, there are many buildings with low earthquake resistance, and the damage has spread.” increase.