Lebanon's Surrpunding Country and Volcanoes

     When I was in elementary school I became fascinated with history and book portraying the natural events in the past that had occurred in times of B.C. One of the events that always came up on these books was that of volcanic activity and it's aftermaths. One of the things I'll be discussing today is Volcanoes. Since my country is Lebanon and I could not find any information stating volcanic activity in Lebanon or any active/dormant volcanoes, I would like to emphasize the relation to volcanoes of another country near mine. This country is Turkey and it is one country apart from Lebanon (as noticed in the picture below)

     Volcanoes are, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “…a vent in the crust of the earth or another planet or a moon from which usually molten or hot rock and steam issue”. The hazard level for Lebanon in regards to volcanoes and volcanic activity is “very low”. This information derived from www.ThinkHazard.org defines very low when "...no eruption has been reported in the area".  In contrast to Lebanon's very low volcanic impact, turkey on the other has has a list of volcanic mountains (Listed by regions below). (https://volcanicmountainsinturkey.wordpress.com/)

Marmara Region: Uludağ
Southeastern Anatolia Region: Karacadağ
The Black Sea Region: Köroğlu Mountains
Mediterranean Region: Hassa Region (Hatay)
Aegean Region: Kula Dunes (the youngest)
Eastern Anatolia Region: Ağrı, Tendürek, Nemrut, Süphan Mountain
The Central Anatolia Region: Erciyes, Melendiz, Hasandağ.

      Among all these, Turkey is the onlyvolcano that is currently active. "Tendürek in the south of Mount Ararat Mountain, Turkey is the only active volcanic mountain. 3584 meters high. And about 500 meters wide at the top of the mountain, there is a crater, and the crater with a variety of hot gases are water vapor. Ağrı is considered an active volcano in the country within the borders of a single Tendürek volcano. Approximately five hundred meters to the east of the mountain, and the diameter of the crater, which comes hot water vapors and hydrogen sulfide gases. These gases are the edges of the crater, the yellow color of sulfur, which leads to formation of a mineral. Temperature of the hot water steams volcano erupted about 60 degrees".

       One of the things that I most found fascinating about this country when conducting my research was HOW MANY volcanoes it has. It shocked me to find that only one was active. I was surprised by all the articles and information found on this country regarding the volcanoes.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/volcano

http://thinkhazard.org/report/141-lebanon/VA

https://volcanicmountainsinturkey.wordpress.com/

Earthquake Activity in Lebanon

  In an article by Lauren Williams titled, “Beirut is Ridiculously Unprepared for a Major Earthquake it describes the massive earthquake Lebanon encountered in 551AD in “the Roman empire, Berytus, the capital of modern-day Lebanon. She states, “A massive earthquake tumbled buildings and sparked a tsunami that wiped the city off the map and killed an estimated 30,000 people. It took decades for Beirut to recover its position as a regional capital following the disaster, and even then, it never entirely regained its former glory (Paragraph 2). “The country is overdue for another major quake, the last one having hit in 1759, when two quakes, one month apart and each measuring a seven on the Richter scale, killed some 40,000 people in Lebanon and Syria. The Yammouneh fault line produces an earthquake about once every eight to 10 centuries, and the Mount Lebanon Thrust every 15 to 17 centuries. Both have the potential to generate earthquakes of up to 7.5 in magnitude” (Paragraph 6).

 "No fewer than four major tectonic plates (Arabia, Eurasia, India, and Africa) and one smaller tectonic block (Anatolia) are responsible for seismicity and tectonics in the Middle East”.(https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1083/k/).

     The most interesting thing I found in this article pertains to the enormous amount of people living amongst the coast. William states, “70% of the 4 million people live among the coast”. When in regards to what the country is doing to minimize the impact from the next unpredictable earthquake, there was “A law passed in 1994 says all new construction must be built according to standards incorporating seismic resistance. But most residential buildings are old, built before these laws were introduced. And with little government oversight, construction laws are rarely enforced”.  As for the citizens of Lebanon, the structures of the buildings are not meant for seismic action to occur because as mentioned before, only new buildings are built to withstand earthquakes and although they are not aware of when the next earthquake will come, it is best to be prepared when dealing with natural disaster especially for the Lebanese citizens living among the coast. I was majorly surprised to see that no earthquake had occurred since then  but even more so, how unprepared it was for one and a Tsunami included.

Let's talk Plate Tectonics!

Let's talk plate tectonics and faults! So to start off, Lebanon neighbors Syria, Jordan and Israel. It also homes it's longest fault, approximately 10-12 million years old--The Yammouneh Fault "...that runs along the western margin of the Bekaa and links the major fault of the Jordan Valley to the Ghab Valley Fault of Northern Syria" (http://almashriq.hiof.no/ddc/projects/geology/geology-of-lebanon/). The Yammouneh Fault is "...a lateral, or strike slip fault and is the Lebanese segment of the Dead Sea Transform Fault". This fault also provides a marking/boundary between "...the Arabia Plate and the Levantine part of the African Plate". As Keller states in page 30, that in "20 million years, cities will be side by side", the Yammouneh Fault has also caused Bekaa to move approximately 50 km northwards. It is not clear if the Yammouneh Fault is dead or dormant. However, although this fault may be the longest, "The Roum Fault, which runs from near Marjayoun towards Beirut is probably where most of the plate tectonic motion is going on now and may be the present plate boundary between the Arabian and the African Plate." Luckily for Lebanon, "The last recent earthquakes in Lebanon have been along this fault including the Chhim earthquake of 1956".

In an article by the Huffington Post titled, "Preparing for Lebanon's Next Earthquake" James Denselow states "Beirut was destroyed by an Earthquake-Tsunami combo in 551 AD. Today it is host to a dense urban population many of whom live in poor quality housing (especially in refugee camps and in the southern suburbs) and on soft, sandy ground near the coast. Such a population environment would be particularly vulnerable to an earthquake that Abdel-Rahman, professor and chairperson at AUB's Department of Geology, warned earlier this year 'could occur any day'" (Paragraph 2).