The first and most destructive of the 2020 Iran–Turkey earthquakes occurred on 23 February, near

Khoy Khoy (Persian and az, خوی; ; ; also Romanized as Khoi), is a city and capital of Khoy County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2012 census, its population was 200,985. Khoy is located north of the province's capital and largest city ...

in north-west

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, close to the border with Turkey, killing 9 people in

Başkale Başkale ( ku, Elbak, hy, Ադամակերտ, translit=Adamakert) is a town and district located in south-eastern Turkey in Van Province. There is one municipality in the Başkale district, the town centre, which was established in 1937. The ne ...

Van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

. It hit at 9:23 a.m. local time (05:53 UTC) with a magnitude of 5.8 at a depth of 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) and the epicenter was Qotur district, according to the Iranian Seismological Center (IRSC). About 10 hours later the same area was hit by another major earthquake of 6.0 .

Tectonic setting

Northwestern Iran and easternmost Turkey lie within the zone of complex structure associated with the continuing

collision In physics, a collision is any event in which two or more bodies exert forces on each other in a relatively short time. Although the most common use of the word ''collision'' refers to incidents in which two or more objects collide with great fo ...

between the

Arabian Plate The Arabian Plate is a minor tectonic plate in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres. It is one of the three continental plates (along with the African and the Indian Plates) that have been moving northward in geological history and collidin ...

and the

Eurasian Plate The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...

. On this part of the boundary the collision is quite oblique and the

thrust fault A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks. Thrust geometry and nomenclature Reverse faults A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less. If ...

ing along the front of the

Zagros fold and thrust belt The Zagros fold and thrust belt (Zagros FTB) is an approximately long zone of deformed crustal rocks, formed in the foreland of the collision between the Arabian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. It is host to one of the world's largest petroleum pr ...

is accompanied by a series of NW–SE trending dextral (right-lateral)

strike-slip fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

s, such as the

North Tabriz Fault North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' i ...

and the Gailatu–Siah Chesh-meh–Khoy Fault. Normal faults are developed at terminations and releasing bends on the strike-slip faults. The entire fault system is

active Active may refer to: Music * ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea * Active Records, a record label Ships * ''Active'' (ship), several commercial ships by that name * HMS ''Active'', the name of various ships of the British Royal ...

and has been associated with many destructive earthquakes.

Earthquakes

The first of the larger earthquakes had a magnitude of 5.8 with a depth of 10 km ( ANSS), 5.8 with a depth of 8 km (

KOERI The Koeri (spelt as Koiry or Koiri) and also referred to as Kushwaha and Maurya in several parts of North India are an Indian non-elite caste, found largely in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, whose traditional occupation was agriculture. According ...

), or 5.7 with a depth of 6 km (Iranian Seismological Center (IRSC)). It was followed just over 10 hours later by the second event, which had a magnitude of 6.0 with a depth of 10 km (ANSS), 5.8 with a depth of 5 km (KOERI), or 5.9 with a depth of 12 km (IRSC).

Damage

The area of significant damage stretched from the city of

in the west to

in Iran to the east. More than 1,000 buildings were destroyed in Turkey, with many others damaged in 43 affected villages in Iran. The Turkish health ministry reported that nine people had died, four of them children, with another 66 injured. 75 people were reported injured in Iran. No further casualties have been reported in Turkey following the 6.0 earthquake. Death toll climbed to 10 when a teenager later died in the hospital.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2020 Iran-Turkey earthquakes Iran-Turkey 2020 disasters in Iran 2020 natural disasters February 2020 events in Iran History of Khoy Gormec February 2020 events in Asia Khoy County 2020 disasters in Turkey February 2020 events in Turkey 2020 in Turkey 2020 in Iran

Tectonic setting

Earthquakes

Damage

See also

References