| | | | In a statement issued Thursday by Gulay Barbarosoglu, the director of the Bosphorus University’s Kandilli Seismic Observatory and Research Centre, the up to three metre fall in the level of water in the Aegean, the Dardanelles Strait and inland Sea of Marmara, is a natural occurrence.
Another to play down the fears of those living on Turkey’s western seaboard was Professor Dr Sukran Cirik of Canakkale’s 18 Mart University. According to Professor Cirik, who heads up the University’s Sea Products Faculty, the fall in water levels was the result of variances in atmospheric pressure and tidal movement, not from seismic disturbances.
The drop in sea levels does not mean the region is about to be struck by an earthquake and tidal waves such as hit the Indian Ocean basin, the Professor said.
The receding waters have left many small fishing boats high and dry, hitting at the livelihood of many local fishermen. Fears of a quake have been added to by heavy fogs that have blanketed much of the Marmara region for the past three days, disrupting shipping. Some have seen the fogs as another sign of a forthcoming natural disaster.
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