Samos-Sığacık Earthquake Highlights the Importance of Multi Hazards and Physics Based Ground Motion Modelling

The Mw 6.9 earthquake that took place offshore between the Greek island of Samos and Turkey’s İzmir province on 30 October 2020 didn’t come as a surprise (Figure 1 by F.S. Malcioğlu, BÜ, Animation 1 by Dr. M. Çağlar, BÜ). Due to the extensional tectonic regime of the Aegean and high deformation rates, earthquakes of similar size frequently occur in the Aegean Sea on fault segments close to the shores of Turkey, affecting the settlements on mainland Turkey and on the Greek Islands. However, the Samos-Sığacık earthquake was an outstanding and important event for several reasons, as this article demonstrates.