Earth sciences

Pollution caused by microplastics on the coasts of the Mediterranean is posing a public health hazard threat ahead of the summer season, an academic has warned.

Freeing the Marmara Sea of mucilage does not mean the sea has been saved, as there is still more that needs to be done, the head of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK) has said.

The use of fertilizers and pesticides in the fields surrounding the sea should be stopped, and fishing in the Marmara Sea must be banned, according to Hasan Mandal.

Just a few metres from the coast or on the sand

“We found a field of very large icy volcanoes that look nothing like anything else we have seen in the solar system”

A moderate earthquake occurred off the coast of the Black Sea province of Zonguldak in Turkey's northwest on April 11. 

The magnitude of the earthquake was 4.4 according to the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD).

The earthquake was felt in Zonguldak and nearby provinces, including İstanbul.

The latest analysis, compiled by Bankwatch, released this week, shows that fine dust, PM2.5, concentrations alone are responsible for up to 8.43 per cent of all deaths among adults in the nearby village of Novaci.

This means that in this small, sparsely populated municipality, up to 6 people die prematurely every year due to PM2.5 pollution.

Today it will be mostly cloudy, in the afternoon in places in Western Bulgaria it will rain lightly. This was announced for FOCUS News Agency by the on-duty weather forecaster from the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology Boryana Markova.

Atmospheric pressure is slightly higher than the average for the month and during the day will remain almost unchanged. Today will be sunny, in the afternoon over the western regions with scattered high clouds, which by the evening will cover the whole country. A weak, moderate south-southwest wind will blow in Eastern Bulgaria.

The National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology has stopped its protest, and weather forecasts for the media have been restored, BNT reported.

The director of the institute, Prof. Hristomir Branzov, explained that the reason was that their protest was beginning to become politicized.

Two consecutive earthquakes which struck Georgia and Armenia have caused panic among residents living in Turkey's northeastern border provinces.

The first earthquake of magnitude 5.3 rocked the city of Shirak, an Armenian settlement located on the border with Turkey, late on Feb. 13, according to initial data from the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center.