Road crosses the Zagros mountain range.
Ocean plate displacement at the bottom of the sea has dragged down the region around the Zagros mountain range. Although the process is extremely slow, it can help prevent earthquakes.
Iraq is sinking. A team of researchers found that an ocean plate that is sinking below the surface of the earth pulls down the region around the region Zagrosin the north of the country.
But it is not a hole swallowing hills, trees and whole pieces of earth. The geological processes in question “are extremely slow, besides the human time scale,” DW Renas Koshnaw, a geologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told DW.
Koshnaw, a native of the Erbil region, in Iraq, is the main author of a study on the movement of tectonic plates under the Zagros line in the Scientific Journal Solid Earth in November last year.
“The effect of these processes cannot be felt instantly,” he said. It is, in fact, a period of millions of years.
Why is this region sinking?
The reason, in short, is the tectonic plates. An increasing rupture is forming in a region along the Arabic and Eurasian continental plates, known as the ocean plate Neotethys.
This sign, which formed the bottom of an old ocean for over 66 million years, is separated from southeastern Turkey until northwest of Iran-a process that causes the plate to sink slowly into the earth.
Koshnaw led a team of researchers from the universities of Göttingen, Germany, and Bern, Switzerland, who analyzed the area around the Zagros mountain range.
Researchers wanted to understand what happens to the underlying ocean plate when two continental plates collide, as depressions around these mountains are deeper than expected, taking into account the moderate topography of the region.
The mountain ranges of today, such as Zagros, are the result of tectonic collisions. Observing the records of rocks and sediments through images obtained from the depths of the earth, the researchers found that Neotethys’ plaque is sinking and taking the Zagros region of Iraq with it.
These findings have several practical implications for revealing the “mechanisms for which our planet operates,” said Koshnaw.
“The study highlighted how dynamic our planet is and how connected the interior and the outside are,” he said.
Prevent non -future terramotes
The results can be used to build more exact geological models that portray the depths below the earth’s surface and can still help in the forecast of earthquakes.
“The earthquakes are generated from rock layers travel along fractures or flaws,” said Koshnaw. “This process could [ocorrer] to any depth or scale.
To understand where, what depth and what scales A flaw could occur, scientists need to understand the broad geological configuration and rock geometry. ”
This would make it easier to determine where earthquakes occur and with what intensity. Such knowledge is important for the region where Koshnaw and his team made their investigations.
In February 2023, several large earthquakes hit the south and center of Turkey, as well as northern Syria, causing thousands of deaths and a trail of destruction.
