Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU) welcomed Dr. Ata Elias on March 1, 2023, to discuss the recent tectonic activity in the Middle East, especially the catastrophic earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey last February. The invitation was extended by the Department of Sciences at the Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences (FNAS). Elias is a professor of geophysics and seismotectonics at the Lebanese University’s Faculty of Engineering, specializing in the geotectonics of the Eastern Mediterranean. He has also worked on geophysical surveys of the Levantine basin with Lebanese governmental institutions on offshore petroleum exploration projects.
In his lecture, Elias drew on the lessons learned from the recent earthquake, explaining that the Eastern Mediterranean is known to be seismically active. The area has experienced earthquakes all through its history and this will be the case in the future as tectonic plates continue to move. The discussion detailed the tectonic setting of the Anatolian faults in Turkey, their activity, and the chronologic succession of the resulting quakes. The severity of the event was caused by not only the magnitude of the earthquake itself but also the nature of the geological substrate in the area. Being in a sedimentary basin wherein the geological deposits are made of unconsolidated materials, quake severity is amplified, as is the resulting damage.
Further, Elias outlined Lebanon’s tectonic setting, known as the Dead Sea Rift system, which extends from the southern part of the country, branching through the Yammouneh and Serghaya faults. The Yammouneh fault in particular extends north to Syria and Turkey, ending at the triple junction of the Arabian, African, and Anatolian plates. Given the shared nature of the setting, earthquakes in Lebanon are inevitable.
The lecture displays a need for cautionary measures to be implemented to mitigate the ramifications of earthquakes, such as the following: better and safer land use through delineation of the hazardous seismic zones, implementation and enforcement of the seismic engineering code, better preparedness for post-earthquake disaster management, and population awareness of the actions needed amidst such an event.