Magnitude 6.0 Earthquake in Balıkesir Province, Turkey.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 6.0 Earthquake at a depth of 8.0 km, about 4 km to the southeast of the municipality of Sındırgı in Balıkesir Province, Turkey,  slightly before 10.,50 pm local time (slightly before 7.50 pm GMT) on Monday 27 October 2025. No casualties have been reported following this event, but several buildings damaged during another Earthquake in August are reported to have collapsed. The Earthquake was felt across western Turkey, and in parts of southern Bulgaria.

The approximate location of the 27 October 2025 Balıkesir Province Earthquake. USGS.

Balıkesir Province lies close to the boundary between the Anatolian Plate, to the north, the Aegean Sea Plate (underlying the Peloponnese, Attica, The Cyclades Islands, Crete, the Dodecanese Islands and Turkey to the southeast of the Taurus Mountains) to the west and the African Plate to the south. Northern Greece and the north coast of Turkey lie on the Eurasian Plate. Both countries are highly prone to earthquakes because of this.

To the east the Arabian Plate  is being pushed north and west by the movement of the African Plate, further to the south. This leads to a zone of tectonic activity within the province, as the Arabian and Anatolian plates are pushed together, along the East Anatolian Fault, and past one-another, along the Dead Sea Transform.

Simplified map of the plate movements of the eastern Mediterranean. Univeriteit Utrecht.

This movement also leads to a zone of faulting along the northern part of Turkey, the North Anatolian Fault Zone, as the Anatolian Plate is pushed past the Eurasian Plate, which underlies the Black Sea and Crimean Peninsula  (transform faulting). This is not a simple process, as the two plates constantly stick together, then break apart as the pressure builds up, leading to Earthquakes, which can be some distance from the actual fault zone. 

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At least one fatality following Magnitude 6.1 Earthquake in eastern Turkey.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 6.1 Earthquake at a depth of 10.0 km, about 10 km to the southwest of the municipality of Bigadiç in Balıkesir Province, Turkey,  slightly before 7.55 pm local time (slightly before 4.55 pm GMT) on Sunday 10 August 2025. Sixteen buildings are reported to have collapsed following the event, although the majority are reported to have been derelict before the event, with at least one fatality, an 81-year-old woman who died after being rescued from the remains of a collapsed building, with 29 more people having been injured.

Local residents removing debris from collapsed buildings following an Earthquake in northeast Turkey on 10 August 2025. Bahadir Demirçeriven/AP.

Balıkesir Province lies close to the boundary between the Anatolian Plate, to the north, the Aegean Sea Plate (underlying the Peloponnese, Attica, The Cyclades Islands, Crete, the Dodecanese Islands and Turkey to the southeast of the Taurus Mountains) to the west and the African Plate to the south. Northern Greece and the north coast of Turkey lie on the Eurasian Plate. Both countries are highly prone to earthquakes because of this.

The approximate location of the 10 August 2020 Balıkesir Province Earthquake. USGS.

To the east the Arabian Plate  is being pushed north and west by the movement of the African Plate, further to the south. This leads to a zone of tectonic activity within the province, as the Arabian and Anatolian plates are pushed together, along the East Anatolian Fault, and past one-another, along the Dead Sea Transform.

Simplified map of the plate movements of the eastern Mediterranean. Univeriteit Utrecht.

This movement also leads to a zone of faulting along the northern part of Turkey, the North Anatolian Fault Zone, as the Anatolian Plate is pushed past the Eurasian Plate, which underlies the Black Sea and Crimean Peninsula  (transform faulting). This is not a simple process, as the two plates constantly stick together, then break apart as the pressure builds up, leading to Earthquakes, which can be some distance from the actual fault zone. 

See also...

Magnitude 5.2 Earthquake in Buzău County, Romania.

The Centre Sismologique Euro-Méditerranéen recorded a Magnitude 5.2 Earthquake at a depth of 131 km, roughly 16 km to the north of the town of Nehoiu in Buzău County, in southeast the Muntenia region of Romania, at about 6.40 pm local time (about 2.40 pm GMT) on Monday 16 September 2024. There are no reports of any damage or injuries arising from this event, but it was felt over much of eastern Romania, Moldova, and western Ukraine. This pattern of causing little damage but being felt a considerable distance from the epicentre is typical of deep Earthquakes, the energy of which is dispersed over a wide distance before reaching the surface.

The approximate location of the 16 September 2024Buzău County, Earthquake. USGS.

The Carpathian Mountains of Romania form part of the suture formed when the Tethys Ocean closed during the Mesozoic, joining the continents of Laurasia (to the north) and Gondwana (to the south). The area is now internal to the Eurasian continent, but the area to the south, known as the Moesian Platform, has a separate origin to the rest of Europe. This system is once again being stressed by the impact of Africa into Eurasia from the south, with the Anatolian Plate (which underlies Anatolian Turkey), Aegean Plate (which underlies southern Greece) and Adriatic Plate (which underlies eastern Italy and the western Balkan Peninsula) caught between the two larger units, leading to a more complex interplay of stresses across southeastern Europe. The Anatolian and Aegean Plates are located to the south of the Moesian Platform, and are being pushed to the west, while the Adriatic Plate lies to the west of the Aegean Plate and Moesian Platform, and is being pushed to the northeast.

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Magnitude 5.7 Earthquake in Bosnia and Herzegovina kills at least one.

The Centre Sismologique Euro-Méditerranéen recorded a Magnitude 5.7 Earthquake at a depth of 5 km, roughly 42 km to the southeast of the city of Mostar in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, slightly after 11.05 pm local time (slightly after 9.05 pm GMT) on Friday 22 April 2022. People have felt this event across the western Balkan Peninsula and much of Italy, with reports of damage from several towns and cities in the region. A 28-year-old woman died and several other people were injured in the town of Stolac, near Mostar, when a boulder dislodged from a hillside by the quake crashed into a house.

 

The approximate location of the 22 April 2022 Bosnia and Herzegovina Earthquake. USGS.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the other states of the western Balkan Peninsula, form the eastern margin of the Adriatic Plate, a piece of the African Plate that has broken away and is now wedged into the southern part of the Eurasian Plate. This is being squeezed by the impact of Africa into Europe from the south, which is pushing western Italy, which sits on the Eurasian Plate, to the east, and Greece and Turkey, which sit on the Aegean and Anatolian Plates, to the west. This squeezing leads to uplift around the margins of the Adriatic Plate, in the Apennines Mountain Range of central Italy and the mountain ranges of the west Balkan Peninsula.

 

Outline map showing the approximate positions of the Eurasian (EU), Adriatic (AD) and African (AF) Plates. Di Bucci & Mazzuli (2003).

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Magnitude 5.5 Earthquake to the north of the Gulf of Corinth, Greece.

The United States Geological Survey detected a Magnitude 5.5 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km close to the northern shore of the Gulf of Corinth, slightly after 5.35 am local time (slightly after 3.35 am GMT) on Wednesday 17 February 2021. There are no reports of any damage or casualties associated with this event, but people have reported feeling it locally.

 

The location of the 17 February 2021 Gulf of Corinth Earthquake. USGS.

 

The geology beneath the Gulf of Corinth is slightly complicated. The Gulf forms part of the boundary between the Aegean and Eurasian Plates. This is a divergent margin, with the two plates moving apart, causing sinking in the centre of the Gulf, with the rocks on either side sinking along a series of faults, a structure known as a graben to geologists.

 

The graben beneath the Gulf of Corinth. The drawing apart of the Aegean and Eurasian Plates causes the lithosphere under the Gulf to thin, and the rocks of the crust to sink, splitting along a series of concentric faults on either side of the Gulf. Moretti et al. (2003).
 

However this is not the whole story, as to the south of the Peloponnese the African Plate is being subducted beneath the Aegean Plate along the Hellenic Subduction Zone, passing under The Peloponnese and the Gulf of Corinth (note this is oceanic plate attached to the north of Africa, not the continental African Plate).

 

 

The subduction of the African Plate beneath the Aegean Plate and the Gulf of Corinth. Turner et al. (2010).

 

 Thus there are two potential causes of Earthquakes beneath the Gulf of Corinth; shallow faulting associated with the graben caused by the drawing apart of the Aegean and Eurasian Plates, and a deeper zone where friction between the subducting African Plate and the overlying Aegean and Eurasian Plates can lead to quakes. However, depth is not the only guide to the cause of a quake, as the friction of the African Plate passing under the Aegean and Eurasian Plates also exerts stresses on the rocks in the graben, and can contribute to quakes there.

 

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