In 1999, an earthquake along the North Anatolian fault killed some 30,000 people in western Turkey. There is some evidence that another segment closer to the densely populated city of Istanbul could be next to rupture, which could create worse devastation. A team of Turkish, American and French scientists are on a Turkish research ship in the Sea of Marmara to image the faults and its overlying sediments to better assess the risk. Donna Shillington, a seismologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, has filed an update from aboard R/V K. Piri Reis. For about 50 years, earthquakes have been propagating westward along the 900-mile-long North Anatolian fault. Quakes are caused by two tectonic plates sliding past one another, much as they do along California’s San Andreas fault. Read More
