Turkey's Çanakkale flagged as top earthquake hazard zone by Japanese expert

Japanese earthquake specialist Yoshinori Moriwaki warned that Çanakkale lies on the northern branch of the North Anatolian Fault and is classified among Turkey’s level‑1 earthquake‑hazard regions. He recounted a large quake on the same fault in 1912 and said, “the risk is real, even if we cannot say a quake will happen right now.”

Moriwaki stressed that building safety matters more than orientation or size, urging stronger urban‑renewal efforts. He contrasted Japan’s practice of promptly sealing damaged structures with Turkey’s slower, dual‑authority process, and called for greater involvement of municipalities, the state and citizens in reconstruction. While recent discoveries of additional fault lines have increased technical detail, he noted they do not necessarily raise the overall seismic risk.