EARTHQUAKE MYSTERY: 5.8 magnitude quake rocks Istanbul for 50 DAYS… but goes UNNOTICED

Meanwhile slow earthquakes happen in more stable regions around the fault and can release similar amounts of energy over a prolonged period.

The study, conducted by Patricia Martínez-Garzón and her team, used boreholes in the Sea of Marmara filled with strain metres that picked up this surface disturbance.

She told National Geographic: “You could call them phantom quakes.”

Lucile Bruhat, an earthquake physics researcher at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, said these reactions are “very common” and are “most of the time harmless”.

Attempting to explain the science behind the phenomenon, she added: “A good analogy for that is when someone walks on a wooden floor on the floor above.