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The Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute said Thursday that 117 earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 0.7 to 3.1 were detected south of Istanbul's Princes' Islands between the morning of Aug. 18 and early afternoon on Aug. 20.
According to the statement issued by Bogazici University's Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, the earthquakes were recorded within an area extending roughly 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) around the southern part of the islands.
Kandilli said the activity is being monitored around the clock by its Regional Earthquake-Tsunami Monitoring and Evaluation Center.
The institute described the ongoing activity as a "temporally and spatially clustered microearthquake sequence," meaning that a series of relatively small earthquakes occurred close together both in location and time.
Kandilli noted that such small earthquake clusters can occasionally be observed in active tectonic regions.
The earthquakes recorded on Aug. 19 and Aug. 20, for which moment tensor solutions could be calculated, showed normal-component oblique strike-slip focal mechanisms. A focal mechanism describes the type and direction of movement associated with an earthquake.
According to the institute, the close similarity between the source mechanisms indicates that the earthquakes developed within a similar faulting geometry.
Kandilli said seismic activity in the area continues to be assessed in detail, with experts tracking the earthquakes according to their locations, depths, magnitudes, and source-mechanism characteristics.
"The seismic activity in the region is being monitored and evaluated in detail 24/7 by the KRDAE Regional Earthquake-Tsunami Monitoring and Evaluation Center in terms of the location, depth, magnitude, and source mechanism characteristics of the earthquakes," the institute said.
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