After the devastating earthquakes in Türkiye and tremors recorded in neighboring Georgia, landslides elevated within the jap Black Sea area, with specialists from two universities within the space not too long ago relating them carefully to the quakes and explaining how they happen.
The geologists have famous three landslides after the Kahramanmaraş earthquake and 12 after the Georgia earthquakes, particularly in Artvin, the place tremors have been felt throughout the earthquakes within the neighboring nation.
“The secondary feature of the earthquake is that it triggers landslides and rocks fall. This is an alarm or a warning,” professor Osman Bektaş famous, though clarifying that the north-facing slopes of the jap Black Sea coast are “extremely faulted, fractured and landslides are widespread.”
Following the robust twin earthquakes of Feb. 6 that affected huge swaths of the nation’s southeastern area, one other three earthquakes measuring 4.0, 4.2 and 4.4 on the Ritcher scale have been recorded in western Georgia on Feb. 11 and 12. Additional 6.4 and 5.8 earthquakes rocked Türkiye’s already devastated southern province of Hatay on Feb. 20 inside intervals of solely three minutes, thus inflicting the land to shift and an eventual enhance within the frequency of landslides within the jap Black Sea area.
Especially in Artvin, a metropolis within the northeast, near the Georgian border, 15 landslides have occurred at completely different factors, probably associated to the impact of the precipitation after the earthquakes. Three of the landslides, nevertheless, reportedly occurred proper after the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes.
Experts, together with Karadeniz Technical University (KTU) former college member and geological engineer Osman Bektaş and related professor Veli Süme from Rize’s Rize Recep Tayyip Erdogan University (RTEU) Faculty of Civil and Engineering, emphasised that it’s essential to be cautious about landslides.
Stating that pure occasions similar to earthquakes and landslides are associated, specialists identified that soil and particles might be knocked free by rain and wind.
Earthquake affect
Stating that the geography of Artvin has been affected by 4 earthquakes over the previous three weeks, Bektaş defined that the tremors in Georgia, belonging to the Caucasian thrust belt, occurred simply north of Artvin.
“Therefore, the region has been affected by earthquakes from both the north and the south for the last 15-20 days,” he mentioned.
“The frequency of rockslides may depend on this, but further research is needed. For example, if the number of rockslides and landslides before the earthquake is compared with the number after the earthquake, the effects of the quakes, seismic movements from the north and south, on faults and landslides can be revealed,” Bektaş highlighted.
Alarm and warning
Regarding landslide slippage in relation to the seasonal situations and earthquake tremors, Bektaş mentioned: “Earthquakes may trigger mass movements in the region or increase with precipitation, and may occur more easily.”
“Our highways, which pass from north to south in the eastern Black Sea mountains, were already threatened by rockslides and landslides on very steep slopes at the summits of the mountains. The highways should take precautions in the areas where the landslides occurred. We need to act a little more carefully,” he famous. Pointing out that the protection of the roads have to be ensured, he additionally mentioned that the frequent prevalence of landslides is an alarm or warning and that extra meticulous work ought to be finished earlier than the wet season or future tremors.
“Occasionally, large boulders fall on the road, or people’s lives are threatened. We need to be more careful on the steep roads and in places where the population is dense,” Bektaş mentioned.
Associate professor Veli Süme additionally acknowledged that there’s concern among the many individuals after the earthquakes as a result of the land within the area is rugged. “We know that the topographic construction of Rize, with its uneven terrain, accommodates soil layers that loosen with precipitation or by earthquakes, triggering landslides.
“There are many citizens who want it to be investigated. This shows that Rize was also affected by the earthquakes. We need to take more precautions,” he mentioned.
On Thursday, a landslide additionally occurred within the Doğanşehir district of Malatya, one of many provinces the place the Feb. 6 earthquakes have been felt most severely. After the incident, District Mayor Durali Zelyurt, who went to the Karanlikdere neighborhood the place the occasion occurred, acknowledged {that a} road consisting of 15 households within the district disappeared with two devastating earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş and the landslide that adopted. The mayor, nevertheless, famous that nobody was killed within the incident.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
