Turkey-Syria Earthquake, what is it and why was it so deadly?

Tene Joshua.V
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT


On 6th february , an Earthquake of magnitude 7.8 shook central Turkey and northern Syria. It was a devastating strike and left many dead . It struck the province of Kahramanmaras , the epicentre was 32 km north-west of the city of Gaziantep.The Mw  7.8 earthquake was the strongest to occur in Turkey since the 1939 Erzincan Earthquake of the same magnitude, and jointly the second-strongest recorded in the country, after the 1668 North Antolia Earthquake
There were at least 45,089 deaths and 114,991 injured across the 11 most affected provinces of Turkey. At least 13.5 million people and 4 million buildings have been affected. About 345,000 apartments were devastated. Thousands were trapped under rubble when buildings collapsed. Many people remained missing in collapsed buildings. But recently it was recorded that more than 50,000 were killed.
(Image credits:Thealtworld.com)

This deadly Earthquake has not only stoped here but as the result of this huge quake , other Earthquakes around the same region have also been felt . These are called as Aftershocks.
Over 570 aftershocks were recorded within 24 hours of the Turkey-Syria earthquake and 10,000 recorded three weeks later. The Magnitude  7.7 earthquake triggered its own aftershock sequence. An aftershock measuring Magnitude 6.7 occurred about 11 minutes after the mainshock.There were 25 aftershocks Magnitude 4.0 or greater recorded within six hours of the main tremor

Rescues are still being made and the damage is estimated at US$89.2 billion.

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