“According to the latest updates of the Turkish network, the earthquake measured magnitude 7,8. For comparison, let me note that the Spitak earthquake was magnitude 7.0. A 7,8 magnitude earthquake measures over 10 [on the MSK scale], around 11. Taking into account that the depth is assessed to be from 7 to 10 km, then the scale of destruction will be massive. The earthquake encompassed Syrian territory to some extent, and the destruction zone reached Aleppo. The consequences will be very severe for Turkey and Syria both in terms of human losses and material damages. The number of victims is reported by the number of recovered bodies. The number of deaths will grow. There are deaths in Syria’s north-western parts too, in the areas outside Aleppo,” the seismologist said.

The seismologist said that the East Anatolian Fault – spanning in the direction from Cyprus to Georgia – causes powerful quakes. The earthquake which hit early Monday morning was caused by this fault.

“The East Anatolian Fault is known for its potential to cause strong earthquakes and yields to the North Anatolian Fault. Both of them do not pass through the present-day territory of Armenia. A small part of the North Anatolian Fault branches enter towards Gyumri from Ani into the Spitak epicenter zone, but there is very low possibility, it is even improbable that this branch would activate and cause a strong quake in Armenia,” he said.

Dr. Sergey Nazaretyan added that Armenia is far from the epicenter of this latest quake in Turkey. “From this perspective I am sure that there is no threat to the territory of Armenia and this strong earthquake cannot impact the seismic situation of Armenia,” he said.

Nazaretyan further added that strong earthquakes have been happening in the territory of Armenia for “millions of years” and will continue happening because these are geological processes which last for millions of years. Regarding the seismic activity of Armenia, he said that the constantly active epicenter zone of the Spitak earthquake is still giving aftershocks.

“We have a scattered seismicity. We’ve had earthquakes in Shorzha, near Yerevan, in south of Armenia, while the seismic-active zone of Javakh is constantly active, it is a unique zone with the greatest number of earthquakes in Caucasus, but fortunately it is a zone of weak quakes, there are no strong ones recorded,” he said.

The expert said they are using their monitoring systems to monitor the seismic situation, the geophysical, geochemical, hydrodynamic fields, and in case of detecting any anomalies they attempt to make respective forecasts.