A new scientific mission in the earthquake-stricken region of Turkey-Syria, the president of the OASP, Professor Efthymis Lekkas, Associate Professor Emmanuel Vassilakis and Dr. Spyridon Mavroulis from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens are attempting to uncover the factors of the enormous disaster.

As stated in the relevant announcement, for the first time it was found in a hard-to-reach area in Elbistan, one of its largest worldwide occurrences of one of the two faults which produced the 7.9 and 7.7 Richter earthquakes. The exposed fault surface has a displacement of more than 5 m. and arather than being in tectonic trenches or sinkholes, it was located on the ridge of a mountain rangedecisively shaping the relief and changing the image of the earth’s surface, causing large landslides, displacing the flow of rivers and destroying large residential units, which in no case could cope with such a degree of deformation.

Also, south of Malatya, in the city of Gölbaşı, at the end of the 300 km long fault, a combination of co-seismic ruptures caused strong deformation on the ground surface, subsidence in a part of the city and intense liquefaction of the geological formations of the foundation of the structures.

The result of the combination of the above was the large and idiosyncratic damage to the buildings, with them collapsing, deviating from the vertical and creating new damages, while the railway network showed intense deformations.

As emphasized by the researchers, who will continue the research in the area Turkey – Syria for the whole next week, the anti-seismic planning based on the new developments, imposes at the level of prevention special micro-zonal studies, which will be based on the latest data.