By Sarah Chemla
A destructive earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale is expected to hit Israel and its surrounding neighbors in the coming years, causing hundreds of deaths, a new study led by researchers from Tel Aviv University has found.
[...]
The researchers showed that a cycle pattern can be seen since such devastating earthquakes seem to be hitting the region every 130 to 150 years, but there have been cases in history where the period of time between one earthquake and another was only a few decades long.
[...]
In the wake of these findings and given that the last one that hit the region was 93 years ago, the researchers predict that another earthquake should hit the region in the near future, in the coming years or decades, they said.
The last earthquake with such magnitude was felt in the Dead Sea valley in 1927, causing injuries to hundreds of people and damage to several main cities, including Jordan’s capital Amman, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Jaffa.
[...]