earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

occurred in the northern

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...

between

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

on May 24, 2014. It had a moment magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum

Mercalli intensity The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the eff ...

of VIII (''Severe''). Serious damage was reported on the Turkish island of

Imbros Imbros or İmroz Adası, officially Gökçeada (lit. ''Heavenly Island'') since 29 July 1970,Alexis Alexandris, "The Identity Issue of The Minorities in Greece And Turkey", in Hirschon, Renée (ed.), ''Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1 ...

and the cities of

Edirne Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis ( Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders ...

and

Çanakkale Çanakkale (pronounced ), ancient ''Dardanellia'' (), is a city and seaport in Turkey in Çanakkale province on the southern shore of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. The population of the city is 195,439 (2021 estimate). Çanakkale is ...

, as well as on the Greek island of

Lemnos Lemnos or Limnos ( el, Λήμνος; grc, Λῆμνος) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Lemnos regional unit, which is part of the North Aegean region. The p ...

. The earthquake was felt in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

and southern

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. Several aftershocks followed the main shock, the strongest measuring 5.3 M_L. This aftershock struck the Gulf of Saros at 12:31 local time.

Tectonic setting

The northern part of the Aegean Sea shows a transition from the

strike-slip tectonics Strike-slip tectonics or wrench tectonics is the type of tectonics that is dominated by lateral (horizontal) movements within the Earth's crust (and lithosphere). Where a zone of strike-slip tectonics forms the boundary between two tectonic plates, ...

associated with the

North Anatolian Fault The North Anatolian Fault (NAF) ( tr, Kuzey Anadolu Fay Hattı) is an active right-lateral strike-slip fault in northern Anatolia, and is the transform boundary between the Eurasian Plate and the Anatolian Plate. The fault extends westward fro ...

(NAF) to the extensional tectonics that characterise the area north of the

Hellenic arc The Hellenic arc or Aegean arc is an arcuate mountain chain of the southern Aegean Sea located on the southern margin of the Aegean Sea Plate. Geologically it results from the subduction of the African Plate under it along the Hellenic subductio ...

. The location of this earthquake is on the westward continuation of the NAF on the boundary between the Anatolian Plate 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 ...

. Other earthquakes on this part of the NAF include an M6.6 event in 1975 and an M5.7 event in 2003.

Earthquake

The distribution of aftershocks, combined with the observed focal mechanism, indicate dextral (right lateral) strike-slip on a WSW-ENE striking fault, assumed to be a continuation of the NAF. Analysis by backprojection of

strong motion ''Strong Motion'' (1992) is the second novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. ''Strong Motion'' was noted by reviewers for its impassioned social criticism, the thoroughness of its research, and its treatment of controversial themes such as a ...

waveforms has been used to understand the detailed propagation history of the earthquake rupture. Two separate fault segments have been identified using this method. The shorter segment to the west of the

hypocenter In seismology, a hypocenter or hypocentre () is the point of origin of an earthquake or a subsurface nuclear explosion. A synonym is the focus of an earthquake. Earthquakes An earthquake's hypocenter is the position where the strain energy ...

ruptured first followed by rupture to the east along the 65 km segment. Propagation of the longer eastern segment occurred at speeds well in excess of the

S-wave __NOTOC__ In seismology and other areas involving elastic waves, S waves, secondary waves, or shear waves (sometimes called elastic S waves) are a type of elastic wave and are one of the two main types of elastic body waves, so named because th ...

velocity, making this an example of a supershear earthquake.

Damage and casualties

A British tourist was injured in

, Greece. A shelter at the Lemnos International Airport collapsed. Many abandoned houses and a church were also damaged. Almost three hundred houses were damaged in Turkey and 11 houses collapsed in Greece. Doğan News Agency said the tremor caused damage to some old houses on the island of

, off Turkey's northern Aegean coast, and 30 people were taken to a hospital with minor injuries. Early reports talked about a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

in the greater earthquake area, but the death has not been confirmed. The Governor of

reported a total number of 324 injuries, and three deaths. Two churches and 13 mosques were damaged to various extents. Minor damage was also inflicted in Bulgaria.

References

External links

M6.9 Aegean Sea Earthquake of 24 May 2014
–

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

* {{Earthquakes in Turkey 2014 earthquakes 2014 in Greece 2014 in Turkey Earthquakes in Turkey Earthquakes in Greece Earthquakes in Bulgaria History of the Aegean Sea May 2014 events in Europe Supershear earthquakes Earthquakes in Romania 2014 disasters in Turkey 2014 disasters in Europe 2014 disasters in Greece 2014 disasters in Bulgaria

Tectonic setting

Earthquake

Damage and casualties

See also

References

External links