Once more we are travelling west along the North Anatolian Fault, and our destination is the Mudurnu valley- a beautiful, peaceful landscape of mist-filled mountains and serene lakes and valleys created by the fault line. En route we stop off in Bolu. In the main street we are somewhat surprised…
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What is becoming apparent to us as we travel further east along the North Anatolian Fault is the sheer scale of the area and number of people affected by it’s presence. We have driven for days across an expansive and much changing landscape, and whilst the urban connubations are few…
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We expected the huge mountain ranges and the wide open spaces in this part of Turkey, but what we didn’t reckon on was just how much agriculture would play a part here. This is a much greener and less arid part of turkey than further east, and it is a…
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The weather is suitably broody as we head in a loop south from Erzincan, where we reach the Karliova triple junction – an area of unprecedented seismic activity where the Anatolian, Eurasian and Arabian tectonic plates meet. Many of the small rural villages in this area have experienced large earthquakes…
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Following the North Anatolian fault westwards, in line with the series of earthquakes that are slowly moving in the same direction, we stopped at the city of Erzincan. Sitting firmly on the fault line, in 1939 Erzincan experienced seven tremors, the largest of which measured 8.2m on the Richter scale…
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We’ve decided to take advantage of being so far east and drive a little further north towards Armenia and Georgia, into the spectacular Kackar mountains. This area once belonged to the Kingdom of Georgia so it feels quite different from the rest of Turkey. Map reading can be a bit…
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Hurtling towards Iran and we’ve been keeping a steady eye on Ahmadinejad’s antics. Unfortunately in the past few weeks his inappropriate comments at the UN and the ongoing nuclear debate mean British-Iranian relations are at a pretty all time low. The official FCO policy is that it’s fine to go…
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The defining force behind the next leg of our journey is the massive North Anatolian fault. Scientists have identified a pattern of earthquakes starting in 1939 moving from the most Easterly point of the fault, West towards Istanbul. Our destination is the Karliova Triple Junction – not a BK meal…
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We’ve finally reached Istanbul – the beautiful city which is scarily close to the North Anatolian fault line. This is one of the most active fault lines in the world – Turkey occupying a small tectonic plate that is being squeezed westwards as the Arabian and Eurasian plates move together….
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