Prof. Dr. Celal Şengör answered some questions about “earthquake weapons” at Teke Tek about 5 years ago. The subject of the publication is the of existing technologies that can cause earthquakes.

Celâl Şengör, who underlined that earthquake weapons are conspiracy theories, most likely cause an earthquake He said that human inventions are checkers. Let us briefly examine the truth of this argument within the framework of the resources that science and scientists offer us.

According to research, dams can seriously increase the risk of earthquakes if the necessary precautions are not taken.

The bases of the water resources on which some dams are built are used to perform such a task. maybe not handy enough.

Artificial aquifers (the top part in the picture) where water accumulates, if the soil is soft then the earth’s crust is normally much more they exert pressure and pressure.

The accumulated water sometimes goes beyond the base. rock strata and fault lines below it erodes. These layers of rock and fault lines were subsequently moved. more And faster they start playing. Therefore, fault lines, which normally move more slowly, move more easily as the layers of rock in front of them soften and both the frequency and intensity of earthquakes increase.

The extremely deadly earthquakes that periodically occur in Pakistan confirm this argument and scientific reality.

Due to the country’s narrow and mostly arid geography, a large portion of Pakistan’s population lives in the bed of the Indus River as well as in close to dams have to live. This country with more than 230 million inhabitants needs the same amount of energy. For this reason, residential areas, agricultural areas, wells, mines, dams, factories and industrial areas, necessarily down is being built.

The situation is, as you can imagine, a catastrophic history full of tragic disasters. The number of people killed in an earthquake in the Balochistan region in 1935 50-60 thousand was nearby. The number of people killed in another earthquake in the Azad Kashmir region in 2005 87 thousand around, the number of injured 75 thousand found it. Those not affected by the earthquake lost their lives to flooding, erosion and similar natural disasters.

The main cause of all these problems are the dams built on the Indus River, one of our planet’s rivers with the highest current strength and intensity. around the river frequency of residential areas and checkers regular erosion of river bottoms, It has placed Pakistan in this inevitable cycle of tragedies.

Disasters caused by disproportionate use or careless storage of water resources are not limited to those caused by dams.

A similar situation occurs within the Earth’s crust. when too much water is pumped And even as settlements were established in riverbeds it can be lived.

Soils weakened by overpumping water are vulnerable to earthquakes and erosion. The best examples of this are the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, which sinks a few centimeters every year, and the capital of Mexico, Mexico City. Jakarta 5 centimeters per year sink to the ground, Mexico City 50 centimeters per year sinks into the ground.

drinking water in these cities. reach with wells And pump out usual practices. As underground water resources dwindle and water from rivers accumulates in the dam’s aquifers, the floors and river bottoms of these cities, respectively, collapse and become too soft.

The first rational solution that comes to mind for all these problems is to establish the settlements as far as possible from the dams and take the necessary precautions to prevent the settlements established close to the dams from being affected by the softer becoming ground.

Prof. Dr. Celal Şengör has had a clear opinion on this since 2009: “Don’t build dams anymore!”. But given people’s energy needs, the fact that they live close to rivers and that dams cannot be built on flat areas where there is no risk of earthquakes, it is not hard to realize that it is not possible not to build new dams or to remove people from the settlements around the dams.

Other scientists and experts also offer different solutions:

1. Afforestation should be done in settlements close to dams and buildings should be strengthened.
2. The reservoirs of the dams where settlements are located must not exceed a certain degree of occupancy in order to reduce the pressure on the river bed. Unless there is a high demand for water, the dam should not be overloaded.
3. The dams in the rivers whose river bed is not very firm should be closed and new dams built in other parts.
4. If not many people are affected, the direction of the river should be changed and a dam built in the new riverbed.
5. The use of dams must continue, but in time a switch must be made to alternatives such as nuclear energy.

Although the status of the dams in Turkey is not yet fully known, it should not be mentioned that at least some research has been carried out so far.

prof. from Istanbul Technical University. Dr. Haluk Eyidogan, Ataturk dam in 2017 earthquake caused or that you can trigger He shared a scientific article about it.

Known for his research in the field of seismology and geophysics and predicting the Istanbul earthquake on September 26, 2019 (5.8), Prof. Dr. Haluk Eyidogan has made four suggestions in his article, which we can summarize as follows:

1. The characteristics of the Samsat Fault, Adıyaman Fault, Lice Fault and Çalgan Fault should be studied for the safety of nearby dams (and thus the region).
2. In particular, the Bozova Fault, which is very close to the dam, should be examined in terms of its relationship to the earthquake.
3. A seismograph that will measure the 30-kilometer radius of the dam should be installed to ensure that it loses its earthquake activity, and the data evaluated in seismology.
4. Information restrictions on dam water level values ​​should be ended and most of our dams, including Atatürk Dam, should be used to investigate the relationship between dams and earthquakes.

In summary, there is some truth to the argument that earthquakes can be caused by dams, and there is still debate over its solution.