An innovative technique for monitoring submarine faults
Thursday, July 14, 2016 - 06:31
in Earth & Climate
To monitor a segment of the North Anatolian seismic fault near Istanbul, an international team of researchers, in particular from CNRS and Université de Bretagne Occidentale, has installed a network of transponders on the floor of the Sea of Marmara. The aim is to measure motion of the sea floor on either side of this segment. The data collected during the first six months reveals that the fault is probably locked in the region of this segment, suggesting that there is a progressive build-up of energy that could be released suddenly. This could cause a major earthquake in the Istanbul area. The study, carried out by a collaboration of researchers from France, Germany and Turkey, is published in Geophysical Research Letters .