Experts say the massive earthquakes that hit Turkiye on February 6 have reportedly shifted the tectonic plate it sits on by up to three meters, experts say.
The country lies on major fault lines that border the Anatolian Plate, Arabian Plate and Eurasian Plate, and is therefore prone to seismic activity.
Meteorologists reportedly revealed that a 225-kilometer stretch of the fault between the Anatolian Plate and the Arabian Plate has ruptured.
According to MailOnline, Italian seismologist Dr. Carlo Doglioni told Italy 24 news site that as a result, Turkiye could even have slipped by up to 'five to six meters compared to Syria'.
However, he added that this was all based on initial data, and more exact information would be available from satellites in the coming days.
Dr. Bob Holdsworth, a professor of structural geology at Durham University, said the plate shift was 'perfectly reasonable' given the magnitude of the earthquake.
He told MailOnline: 'There is a fairly predictable, widely documented relationship between the magnitude of an earthquake and the typical offset that occurs.
'As a rule of thumb, a magnitude 6.5 to 6.9 event is associated with an offset of around one meter – whilst the largest known earthquakes can involve offsets of 10 to 15 meters.
'The faults that slipped in Turkey on February 6 are strike-slip faults that involve mainly horizontal displacements, and so the overall offsets in the region of 3 to 6 meters proposed here are perfectly reasonable.
'Horizontal offsets of this kind can lead to the severing of major subsurface and surface infrastructure, including water mains, electricity cables, gas pipelines and tunnels.
'There may also be surface ruptures developed where the faults break through to the surface – these can offset roads, rivers and other features – including built structures.
'All this is in addition to the damage caused by shaking, liquefaction of soft sediment in valleys/basins and landslides.'
Experts say catastrophic earthquakes are caused when two tectonic plates that are sliding in opposite directions stick and then slip suddenly.
According to them, severe earthquakes normally occur over fault lines where tectonic plates meet, but minor tremors – which still register on the Richter scale – can happen in the middle of these plates.
Turkey is close to the intersection of three tectonic plates, meaning it is prone to earthquakes.
