The receding of the waters of the Mediterranean Sea from the shores of Arab countries.. Is it related to the earthquake in Turkey?

Weather of Arabia - The scene of the waters of the Mediterranean receding several meters from the shores of several Arab countries raised many concerns and questions that were linked to the repercussions of the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, and those fears were fueled by hasty Turkish statements of a tsunami after the earthquake, which was quickly retracted.

Social media reported scenes of sea water receding and its level decreasing, along the Lebanese coastline, on the beaches of Arish, North Sinai Governorate, Egypt, and the beaches of Acre, Palestine.

The sea waters of Adloun port go back a great distance pic.twitter.com/sr4pr6UgUO

- Fouad Khreiss (@fouadkhreiss) February 19, 2023

beaches
Palestinian city of Acre

Shows the receding sea water
After the earthquake # Hatay in # Turkey # Palestine pic.twitter.com/iz1HVwWuYA

– ‏ ‏ Ahmed Al-Twaijri (@ahmd_twaijri) February 21, 2023

#Egypt :
The decline of the waters of the Mediterranean Sea in front of the coasts of Arish and Bir Abd Ali more than 10 meters

This matter was repeated in front of the coasts of Libya and Algeria in the past days pic.twitter.com/WMQ8Nhmlp1

- Adam F Yasin (@AdamFYasin8) February 19, 2023

The reason for the decline in statements fearing a tsunami after the earthquake in Turkey

A "tsunami" is defined as huge waves that arise from the movement of a large area of water for several reasons, one of which is earthquakes. For a tsunami to occur after an earthquake, it is required that the epicenter of the earthquake be at the bottom of the sea, and that the movement of the earth's crust during the earthquake be vertical and not horizontal. According to experts, 85% of One hundred of the movement of the earth's crust during the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey was horizontal movement, and the rest was vertical movement, which prompted Turkey to quickly retract its fearful statements about a "tsunami".

And there is another reason, which raised concern about the occurrence of a tsunami, which is the source of the earthquake, as the cause of the earthquake was one of the faults far from the sea, but because this fault intersects with another that passes through the sea, Turkish officials thought that it could have an effect in the occurrence of aftershocks from its source sea, but this did not happen.

Despite Turkey's retraction of those statements after more data on the earthquake was revealed, it still finds an echo, and scenes that were passing without anyone paying attention to it, such as the scene of changing the color of the sea in Alexandria Governorate (north of Cairo) are linked, which was also linked. With the occurrence of the earthquake, and now the waters of the Mediterranean recede from some beaches.

So why did the phenomenon cause concern? And what caused it?

The reason for the retreat of the waters of the Mediterranean Sea from some beaches

The scene of the receding of sea water occurs as a result of factors such as the tides, and this is a usual scene and is repeated according to the effects of the tidal phenomenon, but it seems that the fear of the consequences of the Turkey earthquake made people focus on things that were not previously drawn to their attention.

The astronomer trainer, and a member of the Arab Federation for Astronomy and Space Sciences, Dalal Al-Lala, explained in statements to "Arab Weather" that the receding of sea water on 2023.2.20 is a natural event resulting from a recurring phenomenon, which is the phenomenon of tides, which varies in intensity from place to place and from time to time. , ranging from several centimeters to several meters in the normal situation.

The phenomenon of tides occurs in seas and oceans due to the effect of the moon's gravity and the sun's gravity on the planet, so that the sea water level rises when the tide occurs, and the opposite occurs when the water level decreases in the case of tides.

On the day 19-2-2023, the moon reached its closest point to the earth (perihelion), and it was in the phase of appendage, meaning that the earth, the moon, and the sun are in one straight line, which produced the high tide, which is an increase from the usual tide, and two days occur every day, interspersed with two islands. Also, this is what has been observed on the shores of some countries of the receding and receding of sea water.

It must be noted that other factors such as weather factors related to wind speed and others are also contributing factors to the strength of the tides. In the absence of active winds that cause the occurrence of waves, the tides appear more clearly and the sea water recedes more.

However, does the earthquake in Turkey have anything to do with this receding water?

For his part, Dr. Masdouq Al-Taj, Professor of Structural Geology and Seismology at the Hashemite University in Jordan, explained, in a statement to "Arab Weather", that there is another factor that contributed to the receding of the waters, as the recent earthquake that occurred on Monday evening (February 20) in southern Turkey, It is caused by a rift that moves laterally with a vertical movement downward, meaning that the western plate moved slightly downward, which caused the movement of sea water and its receding from the coastal areas towards the north.

In Egypt, Amr Zakaria, head of the Egyptian Institute of Marine Sciences, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the water receding occurred gradually, even before the earthquake, and was not sudden. The head of the Institute of Marine Sciences does not deny that the current decline is more than usual in previous years, so he is currently undergoing an extensive study by the Institute's researchers, and its results will be announced upon completion.

Also read: Earthquake lightning..a mysterious flash of light that appears in the sky with the occurrence of a strong earthquake..and this is science's explanation for the mysterious phenomenon