US seismologist: Earthquakes in Turkiye won’t affect Azerbaijan

The earthquake that occurred in Turkiye and the aftershocks will most likely not affect Azerbaijan, Thomas Heaton, professor of engineering seismology at the California Institute of Technology said.

He said that it would be very unusual to observe the same seismic activity in Azerbaijan now, since the country is far enough from the epicenter of the February 6 earthquake.

"This earthquake could not have been predicted, although I expect that there will be people who will claim that they knew something was about to happen. Earthquakes come in clusters. About 5% of earthquakes are followed by a larger one. Although chances are good that the largest event has already occurred, there is still a chance for another large earthquake. There is great variability in the rate of aftershocks, but the average rate decreases. In other words, the second week has 1/2 as many aftershocks as the first week. Aftershocks could continue for years,” he added.

"It’s important to learn about building practices that survive strong shaking," Heaton said.





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