This note is intended primarily for people who are associated with the following Web site:

Turkey Area Earthquake Forecasting
http://www.deprem.tc/eng1.html

If and when time permits, perhaps in a week or two, I am planning to try to see if people in your forecasting group would like to do some research which I feel might significantly advance earthquake forecasting efforts in your country and elsewhere. On a regular basis I discuss these types of efforts with groups around the world which range in size from governments to individual researchers. However, highly destructive earthquakes are fairly rare here in the U.S. And partly as a result of that there is relatively little interest here in doing this type of research. If you are having 30,000 people visit your forecasting Web site each month then that would indicate to me that the situation could be a little different in your country.

Perhaps the first research project which I would recommend that you attempt would be to duplicate the following study, but for earthquakes in the Turkey area:

http://home.netcom.com/~edgrsprj/121a.gif or
http://home.netcom.com/~edgrsprj/121b.gif

That GIF file chart is discussed in the following report (which is long overdue for an update):

How Earthquakes Are Being Triggered
http://home.netcom.com/~edgrsprj/121.html

The chart shows where the sun and the moon were in the sky in relation to one another when something like 150 significant earthquakes occurred at different longitudes around the world. I might suggest that people connected with your group prepare two lists. The first would contain information for perhaps 100 to 200 of the most powerful earthquakes in the Turkey area. The second would contain information for all of the Turkey area earthquakes discussed in the following reports:

Significant Earthquakes of the World
http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/significant.html

As with the GIF file chart I mentioned, the positions of the sun and the moon relative to one another would be plotted for each of those earthquakes. This is extremely easy work to do. But it would require that someone spend a fair amount of time collecting the data.

I believe that my GIF file chart shows that the times when many earthquakes in western Pacific Ocean areas are occurring are clearly linked with the positions of the sun and the moon in the sky. Perhaps such a study for Turkey area earthquakes would produce similar results. And that would be information which I feel could be quite important to your forecasting efforts.

Finally, these are my own opinions. Also, because of my schedule, when I post notes such as this one to this bulletin board or to an Internet Newsgroup it may be days before I am able to check to see if there were any responses. So if someone posts a response to one of my notes and I do not immediately post a response myself then it is usually not for lack of interest.