M 7.0 - 37 km E of Balkanabat, Turkmenistan

  • 2000-12-06 17:11:06 (UTC)
  • 39.566°N 54.799°E
  • 30.0 km depth
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  • Origin
    Review Status
    REVIEWED
    Magnitude
    7.0 mwc
    Depth
    30.0 km
    Time
    2000-12-06 17:11:06 UTC
    Contributed by US 3 HRV

Tectonic Summary

The December 6, 2000, M 7.0 earthquake in Turkmenistan occurred as the result of shallow, oblique reverse faulting within the Eurasia plate, almost 1,000 km northeast of the regional plate boundary between the Arabia and Eurasia plates that is responsible for the faulting and uplift of the local mountain ranges, such as the Zagros and Caucasus Mountains. The focal mechanism solutions for the earthquake indicate that rupture occurred on a moderately dipping reverse fault oriented northwest-southeast or east-west. Slip on a fault of either orientation would accommodate the broad regional compression between Arabia and Eurasia. At the location of the earthquake, the Arabia plate moves northward relative to the Eurasia plate at a velocity of about 31 mm/yr.

Large earthquakes in Turkmenistan are infrequent, but can be devastating. Within 400 km of the December 6th event, six other M 6+ events occurred over the preceding 40 years. The style of faulting for these events strongly differs, but all were shallow in depth. The most recent event was a M 6.5 earthquake in February 1997 near the Turkmenistan-Iran border, more than 200 km southeast of the December 6th event. Despite being a smaller magnitude event than the December 6th earthquake, this strike-slip event was very shallow, produced more intense shaking, and occurred in a more densely populated region, resulting in more than 100 fatalities and $30 million in damage. In 1948, a M 7.3 earthquake 350 km to the southeast of the December 2000 event caused significant destruction in the capital city of Ashgabat and resulted in between 10,000 and 110,000 casualties. (Soviet-regime media did not report on the extent of damage and casualties resulting from natural disasters.)

Hayes et al. (2016) Tectonic summaries of magnitude 7 and greater earthquakes from 2000 to 2015, USGS Open-File Report 2016-1192. (5.2 MB PDF)

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