Efthimios Lekkas, professor of geology and natural disasters and president of ΟΑΣΠ, says that an earthquake could occur in Istanbul at any moment – there are tsunami warning signs posted in the city. Is Greece in danger?
In Istanbul, a city of 20 million, he points out, only a third of buildings are not highly vulnerable. However, he said, “this does not mean that every earthquake that occurs in Turkey affects the territory of Greece. If the earthquake does not occur first, any correlation (relationship) is invalid.” The professor notes quotes newsbeast.gr:
“We don’t know whether this will manifest itself now, or perhaps in five years. We are dealing with a huge Anatolian fault, which is about 1,500 kilometers long, from the Caspian to the Aegean Sea. It is divided into 13 large components. Twelve collapsed and caused strong earthquakes. The last piece expected to break is the one south of Istanbul, in the Bay of Marmara. It was determined that an earthquake should have occurred as early as 2020, but it did not. As time passes, the chances increase , and the likelihood of having greater strength increases because trends accumulate.”
The professor noted that 20 million people live in Istanbul: 1/3 of the buildings are old, especially vulnerable, 1/3 are new, but have better anti-seismic standards (in Antioch, all new buildings were destroyed during last year’s earthquake), and only 1/3 of the buildings has anti-seismic armor. So the vulnerability is great, and that is why the Turks are taking the necessary measures:
“There is a risk of a tsunami because the fault is very large, about 60 kilometers, and Marmara Bay is closed, and there are reflections of sea waves, and a tsunami of about 10 meters can be created.”
In several areas of Istanbul, permanent tsunami warning signs have been installed for several months. They urge residents to move away from the shores of the Bosphorus, to more elevated areas of the city. The first of them were installed in Buyukcekmece, a densely populated area. Residential buildings there are separated from the sea only by beaches and a long promenade in the metropolitan area of Greater Istanbul.
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