Scientists Use Satellite Images to Identify Landslide Locations Following Devastating Earthquake in Turkey in Early February.
Some landslide locations in Turkey captured by Landsat 9 satellite. (Image: Sci Tech Daily)
Two strong earthquakes measuring 7.8 and 7.5 on the Richter scale shook many areas in Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023, causing widespread damage. In the days following the earthquakes, new landslides became clearly visible in satellite images.
A team of experts at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center identified over 100 landslides in Turkey, utilizing high-resolution data from Planet Labs. The landslide data is included in a map provided to the nonprofit organization World Central Kitchen to assist in delivering food and drinking water to earthquake victims.
The Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on the Landsat 9 satellite captured images of a cluster of small landslides along the valley east of Sarıseki village, Turkey, on February 14, 2023. On the same day, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station took a photograph of a landslide in a canyon near İslahiye, a town in the southeastern province of Gaziantep, Turkey. İslahiye is one of the towns and cities with a significant number of buildings destroyed due to the earthquake.
NASA’s Earth Observatory shared the photo taken by a member of the Expedition 68 crew after enhancing the colors to increase contrast. The image was captured using a Nikon D5 digital camera with a 1150mm lens. Through the Earth Observatory, astronauts regularly photograph and share Earth images that are valuable for scientific research.
The Earth Applied Sciences Disasters program at NASA is also monitoring the earthquakes and their aftermath, as well as sharing maps, data, and scientific knowledge with various agencies and organizations to support relief efforts and risk assessment.
| Landslides refer to the movement of a mass of rock, soil, or debris down a slope on a mountain or hill, or even across a geological layer. Depending on their scale, landslides can pose risks to structures and human lives. |
