Fault Plane News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

we're talking breaking news out of turkey where a major earthquake has struck the southern part of the country. officials say the death toll has now risen to at least 17. the u.s. geological survey says the 7.8 magnitude quake was centered east of nadagi in gaziant. p province. officials say multiple buildings have collapsed not just in turkey but also in syria. an aftershock with a magnitude of 6.7 struck northwest of the initial quake about 11 minutes later. a local journalist tells cnn there were up to eight very strong aftershocks in under a minute. let's take you now to cnn's jo...

So if it's very close to the surface if it's a shallow earthquake then it can be very dangerous. and this probably had a depth of about 18 kilometers, which is a pretty shallow earthquake for this magnitude. >> and so what does that mean when it's shallow and it's also hitting a very densely populated center? >> well, yeah, i mean, the faults don't know where the people live. the faults are where they are. the shallow -- what i mean by a shallow earthquake is just simply that the fault plane extends below the surface of the earth. it goes into the earth at depth and the rupture on this fault p...

>> is there a chance that on the's earthquake could be a preshock to a larger earthquake? >> there always is. >> 5% of california earthquakes are followed by something larger within three days. >> reporter: the trembler center aid long the fuentes hill fault. it was one of the first in california since 20 years ago after a quick killed more than 50 people and causing an estimated $42 billion in damage. cnn meteorologist alexandra steele says the chance far catastrophe line of scrimmage northridge exists anywhere a fault plane is present. >> our surface is constantly moving and it's composed of...

You wouldn't expect, for instance, to see a fault of that size in the middle of the u.s. in the stable interior. so while it's true that there are faults we don't know about, it's not true that they can be anywhere in the world. they tend to be in the tech on theically-active areas. just to compare that, a 6.7 earthquake, the fault is not nearly as large as the size of the fault plane that rupture inside this latest japan earthquake. so we know we can't have faults that big that we don't know about because they only occur in subduction zones. jenna: it's one we'll continue to ask questions abo...