An earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale hit the Cameli area at 11:08 am today.  It was preceded by two quakes of 3.1 and 3.7 in the morning and followed by another of 3.3 at 11:14 am. The biggest quake could be felt by the downtown wing of Fethiye Times and a number of the hanging lights swung a little as our building gently swayed. In fact the swinging light fitting is one of the best ways of telling if an earthquake has just happened because only an earthquake generates that short of motion. It’s a strange feeling when you are sat down; a bit like feeling feint.

It was only 18 days ago when a 5.1 quake hit Cameli and that one caused some damage to properties in the area.  There is no news yet as to the effect of the latest quakes on the area.

The Cameli area is criss-crossed with fault lines in the earths crust, as shown on the picture above as black lines, and recent seismic activity has been quite regular. The red dots represent all recent seismic activity. Fethiye Times has graphed the earthquake activity for the last 30 days on these fault lines using publically available information. The graph below shows that nearly every day there has been some sort of activity. The biggest quakes of 5 and above are dated on the graph.

So what conclusions can we draw? Do we think this is a prelude to a really big quake, a bit like a balloon waiting to pop; or is it like a creaking wooden ship just letting a little pressure go? We don’t know but all we can say is that earthquakes are a reality in our area and this information is a reminder for us to be prepared.

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