The devastating earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey on Monday is one of the deadliest this decade. Read to know why it was so devastating.
Why was the earthquake in Syria and Turkey so bad?
The epicenter of Monday’s earthquake was about 26 km east of Nuradagi, a city in Turkey, and 18 km deep on the east Anatolian Fault. The quake then radiated towards the northeast, bringing devastation to Syria and central Turkey. “If we were going simply by (major) earthquakes that were recorded by seismometers, it would look more or less blank,” stated Roger Musson. Musson is an honorary research associate at the British Geological Survey.
As per a U.S. Geological Survey, only three earthquakes over 6.0 on the Richter Scale have been recorded in the area since 1970. However, a 7.0 earthquake hit the region in 1822, killing about 20,000 people. On average, under 20 quakes over 7.0 hit the earth in any given area. “Compared with the 6.2 earthquakes that hit central Italy in 2016 and killed some 300 people, the Turkey-Syria earthquake released 250 times as much energy,” stated Joanna Faure Walker. Walker is the head of the University College London Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction. (Adipex)
More on the quake
The east Anatolian fault is a strike-slip fault where solid rock plates push against each other along a vertical fault line in Syria and Turkey region. The stress keeps building stress until one of them slips, releasing a severe amount of strain, and triggering an earthquake. “The shaking at the ground surface will have been more severe than for a deeper earthquake of the same magnitude at source,” stated David Rothery. Rothery is a planetary geoscientist at the Open University in Britain. 11 minutes following the initial earthquake, a 6.7 magnitude aftershock hit the region. Hours later, 7.5 and 6.0 magnitudes hit the region again. “What we are seeing now is the activity is spreading to neighboring faults. We expect seismicity to continue for a while,” added Musson.