Earthquake in Turkey

Why is the earthquake in Turkey so terrible?

Several aftershocks were felt after the earthquake struck near the Turkish city of Gaziantep. One of these tremors was as strong as the main earthquake.

Why was it so horrible?

It was a big earthquake. The magnitude was 7.8, which is classified as 'significant'. It struck about 100 km along the fault line and caused severe damage to buildings.

What causes earthquakes?

The Earth's surface is made up of separate pieces, called plates, that lie next to each other. These plates tend to move frequently. But this movement is prevented by friction with other adjacent plates. However, when the pressure is too high, sometimes a plate suddenly shakes and the surface of the earth moves. Now the Arabian plate moves northwards and pushes against the northward moving Anatolian plate. This kind of friction of the plates has caused many terrible earthquakes. This caused a magnitude 7.4 earthquake on August 13, 1822, which was much smaller than the one that occurred on Monday. Nevertheless, earthquakes in the 19th century caused extensive damage to cities in the area, killing seven thousand people in the city of Aleppo alone. The current earthquake has already been followed by several aftershocks and scientists believe that it will be similar to previous earthquakes in the region.

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How are earthquakes measured?

There is a scale for measuring earthquakes called the Moment Magnitude Scale (Mw). It replaced the Richter scale as the earthquake-measuring instrument previously known. The Richter scale is now considered outdated and not as accurate. The number given to an earthquake indicates how far the fault line has moved and the speed behind this movement. Vibrations of 2.5 or less are usually not felt, but are detected by the instrument. Five levels of vibration are felt that can cause minor damage. A 7.8 magnitude earthquake is considered quite strong and causes severe damage. As it happened in Turkey this time. An earthquake greater than magnitude 8 can cause catastrophic damage to anything and completely destroy the community at its center.

The death toll in Turkey and Syria exceeded 8,000, and 2.5 million people were affected

International aid efforts are being stepped up there. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 2.5 million people across Turkey and Syria have been affected by the earthquake. Thousands of buildings have collapsed in both countries and rescue workers are desperately trying to save people trapped under the rubble. People trapped under the rubble in northern Syria are crying out for help but there is almost no one to answer their calls."People are still under the [collapsed] buildings, they need help," said Ibrahim Haskololu, a Turkish journalist in Istanbul. He told BBC News that people trapped under the rubble were sending him and other journalists videos, voice notes and their live location. Turkey needs all the international support it needs now, Haskoğlu said.

Why the earthquake in this place?

Turkey is located in one of the most active seismic zones in the world. Earlier in 1999, a powerful earthquake in the northwestern part of the country killed more than 17,000 people. The latest earthquake occurred around the southwest-to-northwest-trending East Anatolian Fault near Turkey's southeastern border. Seismologists have long said the fault is extremely dangerous, even though there have been no significant earthquakes there for more than 100 years. However, there have been some serious earthquakes in the area in the past. In particular, there was a 7.4-magnitude earthquake on August 13, 1882, significantly smaller than the 7.8-magnitude recorded today. Nevertheless, many cities were heavily damaged by that 19th-century earthquake. 7,000 people died in the city of Aleppo. The aftershocks of that powerful earthquake continued for almost a year.

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