International News

Türkiye Earthquake

Author : Bozhou Marine

Update time : 2023-02-08 10:33:11

In the early morning of February 6 local time, a major earthquake occurred in southern Türkiye and northern Syria. Strong earthquakes of 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude successively occurred near Gaziantep, Türkiye, which triggered people's concern about the humanitarian crisis.

United Nations aid agencies have provided emergency assistance to thousands of people affected by the disaster, including life-saving assistance to those still buried under the rubble.

United Nations Secretary General Guterres issued a statement saying: "At this sad moment, my heart is with the people of Türkiye and Syria. The United Nations is fully supporting the response, and our team is assessing needs on the ground and providing assistance."

According to the news released by Türkiye's media in the early morning of the 8th Feb local time, Türkiye's Vice President Octai said that the earthquake in Türkiye had killed 5894 people and injured 34810.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Türkiye said that this is the most serious disaster in Türkiye for more than 80 years.

The director of the Syrian National Earthquake Center, Laid Ahmed, said that the earthquake in Iskenderun, southern Türkiye, had the greatest impact on Syria, affecting neighboring Idlib, Latakia, Aleppo and other regions. This earthquake is the strongest earthquake monitored by the Syrian National Earthquake Monitoring Network since its establishment in 1995.

Türkiye is located at the junction of geological plates. About 42% of the country is located in active seismic zones, with unstable geological structure and frequent earthquakes. The fundamental cause of the earthquake is plate movement. The Arabian plate collided with the Eurasian plate to the north, forcing the Anatolian plate in the middle to move westward at a speed of about 2 cm per year. In several years or decades, local stress continues to accumulate until resistance is overcome and earthquake occurs.

The area affected by the earthquake is densely populated, and many buildings collapsed. Some of them may have been built before the modern seismic design code, so there may be no design for such a strong earthquake.

Many buildings have experienced the so-called "pancake collapse". Because the connection between the wall and the floor is not strong enough, each floor collapsed vertically on the next floor, leaving a pile of concrete slabs with almost no gap in the middle. This means that there is very little chance of survival for anyone inside.

Earthquake can not be accurately predicted, so the prevention of earthquake disasters mainly depends on preparation, such as the construction of seismic infrastructure and effective response. The level of infrastructure in the areas affected by the earthquake is uneven, and the current response is very important to save lives. "The next 24 hours is the key to finding survivors; after 48 hours, the number of survivors will be greatly reduced.

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