A total of 18,191 earthquakes were registered in Turkey in the first six months of the year, or an average of four earthquakes per hour, said crisis management specialist Prof. Dr. Bulent Özmen from Gazi University in Ankara, TRT Haber reported, BTA reported.
According to Özmen, a total of 18,191 earthquakes were registered in Turkey between January 1 and June 30, which is significantly above the average levels of about 25,000 earthquakes per year. “The increase in the number of recorded earthquakes is mainly related to the seismic activity around the 6.2-magnitude earthquake in the Istanbul region and the activity in the Aegean Sea in the first two months of the year“, Özmen also noted.
The specialist also noted that the largest number of earthquakes were registered in the Muğla district (Western Turkey), followed by Malatya, Kütahya, Kahramanmaraş and Istanbul.
“During these months, a total of 206 earthquakes with a magnitude between 4 and 4.9 on the Richter scale were registered, 18 with a magnitude between 5 and 5.9 and three tremors with a magnitude above 6“, Özmen also said, emphasizing that two people died and over 450 were injured as a result of the tremors.