CNN
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A devastating earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria on Monday has reportedly killed more than 8,000 people and injured tens of thousands.
Thousands of buildings and aid agencies collapsed in both countries warn of “devastating” impacts in northwestern Syria, where millions of vulnerable and displaced people were already dependent on humanitarian assistance.
A large-scale rescue operation is underway, with the global community assisting in search and recovery efforts. Meanwhile, agencies warn that the death toll from the disaster could rise significantly.
Here’s what we know about the earthquake and why it was so deadly.
One of the most powerful earthquakes to hit the region in a century shook residents from their sleep early Monday morning around 4 a.m. 24.1 kilometers (14.9 miles) according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
Hours after the initial accident, a series of aftershocks shook the area. A magnitude 6.7 aftershock followed 11 minutes after the first quake, but the largest magnitude 7.5 quake occurred at 1:24 p.m., about nine hours later, according to the USGS.
The magnitude 7.5 aftershock, which occurred about 95 kilometers (59 miles) north of the initial quake, is the strongest of more than 100 recorded aftershocks.
Rescue teams are now racing against time and the elements to extract survivors from under the rubble on both sides of the border. In Turkey, more than 5,700 buildings have collapsed, according to the country’s disaster agency.
Monday’s quake was also one of the strongest Turkey has experienced in the past 100 years, with a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hitting the eastern part of the country in 1939, killing more than 30,000 people, according to the USGS.
From the highest peaks of the Himalayas to the lowest valleys like the Dead Sea to the frigid regions of Antarctica, earthquakes occur on every continent of the world. However, the distribution of these earthquakes is not random.
The USGS describes earthquakes as “ground shaking caused by sudden slippage of faults.” Stress in the Earth’s outer layer pushes the fault sides together. Stress builds up and rocks suddenly slide, releasing wave energy that travels through the Earth’s crust, causing the shaking you feel during an earthquake. ”
Earthquakes are measured using seismographs that monitor seismic waves that travel through the earth after an earthquake.
Many may recognize the term “Richter scale,” which scientists have used for many years before, but more recently, according to the USGS, the modified scale is a more accurate measure of earthquake size. It follows the Mercalli Strength Scale (MMI).
The strength of an earthquake is known as its magnitude. The intensity of shaking depends on the geography and topography of the area and the depth of the earthquake. On the magnitude scale, each integer increment translates to 32 times more energy.
On this occasion, the shaking of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in southern Turkey was felt in the distance. as israel and Lebanonhundreds of kilometers away.
Turkey is accustomed to strong earthquakes because it is located along a tectonic plate boundary. He’s had seven earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or higher in the last 25 years, but Monday’s quake is one of the most powerful.
It’s also the strongest quake to hit anywhere in the world since a magnitude 8.1 quake hit an area near the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic in 2021, but the incident’s remote location caused little damage. bottom.
Karl Lang, an assistant professor in the Georgia Tech School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, told CNN that the area hit by the quake on Monday is prone to seismic activity.
“This is a seismic zone. It’s a very large fault zone, but this is a bigger earthquake than they’ve experienced in recent memory,” Lang said.
“The magnitude of a tremor felt at the surface of the earth is not only a function of the amount of energy released, the magnitude of the earthquake, but also the distance that energy is emitted below the surface. In very close, shallow earthquakes, it can be very dangerous.”
“We always talk about epicenters, but in this case we should be talking about epilines,” said CNN meteorologist and severe weather expert Chad Myers.
Two huge tectonic plates, Arabian and Eurasian, meet under Turkey’s southeastern provinces. Along this fault line, “the Earth slid about 100 miles from one side to the other,” Myers continued.
Seismologists call this event a “strike slip.” “This is where the plates meet and suddenly slide sideways,” Myers says.
This is different from the Ring of Fire, which runs along the west coast of the United States. In this zone, earthquakes and tsunamis are often caused by subduction, when a plate slides under another.
But in a “strike-slip” the plates move horizontally instead of vertically. “The reason it’s important is because you don’t want buildings to come and go, and secondary waves will start coming and going,” Myers added.
Due to the nature of the quake, aftershocks could last “weeks to months,” according to CNN meteorologist Karen McGinnis.
Meteorologist Explains Why Turkey Earthquake Is in the Record Book
The 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than 22,000 people dead or missing compared to other major earthquakes around the world, registered a magnitude of 9.1.
The incident left widespread destruction after a wall of water engulfed entire towns, dragging homes onto highways and causing the worst nuclear disaster on record in the country.
The year before, in 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti, killing an estimated 220,000 to 300,000 people. He also injured 300,000 people and forced millions from their homes.
In 2004, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9.1 struck the coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island, triggering a tsunami that killed 227,898 people or was listed as missing and presumed dead.
According to the USGS, the strongest earthquake ever recorded was a magnitude 9.5 in Chile in 1960.
Many factors contributed to making this earthquake so deadly. One of them is the time it happened. An earthquake struck early in the morning, so many people were in bed when they woke up, but are now trapped under the rubble of their homes.
moreover, cold and humid system While traveling through the region, poor conditions have made rescue and recovery efforts on both sides of the border significantly more difficult.
Temperatures are already very low but are expected to plummet to a few degrees below zero by Wednesday.
A low pressure system is now over Turkey and Syria. As it progresses, it will bring “significantly cooler air” from central Turkey, according to CNN senior meteorologist Britri Ritz.
Forecast for Wednesday morning is -4 degrees Celsius in Gaziantep and -2 degrees Celsius in Aleppo. On Thursday, the forecast is even lower, with -6 and -4 degrees respectively.
Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said the situation had already made it difficult for aid teams to reach the affected areas, adding that bad weather prevented helicopters from taking off on Monday.
Despite the situation, authorities are urging residents to leave the building for their own safety amid fears of more aftershocks.
With both countries suffering so much damage, many are beginning to question the role that local building infrastructure played in the tragedy.
Kishor Jaiswal, a USGS structural engineer, told CNN on Tuesday that Turkey has experienced severe earthquakes in the past, including the 1999 earthquake that hit southwestern Turkey, killing more than 14,000 people. said to have died.
Jaiswal said many areas of Turkey have been designated as very high seismic hazard zones, so building regulations in the region ensure that construction projects can withstand these types of events, most of the time leading to catastrophic collapse. It means that it should be avoided.
But not all the buildings were built according to modern Turkish earthquake resistance standards, Jaiswal said. Defects in design and construction, especially in older buildings, meant that many could not withstand the severity of the impact.
“These structures may not perform well if they are not designed for the seismic intensity they may face during the design period,” said Jaiswal.
Jaiswal also warned that many of the standing structures “could be significantly weakened due to the two strong earthquakes we have already witnessed.” The chances of an aftershock strong enough to destroy these degraded structures are still slim. Therefore, during this aftershock activity, people should exercise extreme caution in accessing vulnerable structures for these rescue operations. ”
Photos: Deadly earthquake hits Turkey and Syria
Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, already displaced by the civil war in their home countries, are settling in areas of Turkey worst hit by Monday’s earthquake.
According to Human Rights Watch data, Turkey shelters more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees. Many of these refugees have settled along the Turkish-Syrian border. The provinces of Hatay, Gaziantep and Şanlıurfa each house more than 300,000 of her Syrians, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Other neighboring states have also sheltered hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled their home countries since the Syrian conflict began in 2011.
In the aftermath of the disaster, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said it would “launch immediate cash assistance” from its Disaster Response Contingency Fund to support relief efforts in both countries.