A powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Southern Turkey near the border with Syria at around 4 am local time. Extensive damage is expected. The quake struck 23 kilometers (14.2 miles) east of Nurdagi, Gaziantep province at a relatively shallow depth of 17.9 km.
Regions affected include Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Iraq, Israel and beyond. earthquake.usgs.gov/...
Aftershocks are likely to continue for a while -
Here is the timeline of earthquakes and aftershocks above M4.0 until midnight local time (GMT+3).
Also, see www.nbcnews.com/… for live news updates.
Region info
Most of the region is in time zone GMT+3, i.e., 8 hours ahead of ET.
Weather forecast for Gaziantep — highs in the thirties, rain tonight, light snow tomorrow. Low 22F Tuesday night. Not good :(
Seismic Activity in the region
The region where the February 6 earthquake occurred, within the vicinity of a triple-junction between the Anatolia, Arabia, and Africa plates, is seismically active.
This is one of the the largest earthquake to hit this region in recent history. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the city of Erzincan in central Turkey in 1939, killing an estimated 33,000 people.
An M6.7 quake in this region on January 24, 2020 caused extensive damage and injuries. However, this region has not experienced an M7 earthquake for over a century. Experts have been predicting an M7 earthquake to occur within the next few years.
From seismo.berkeley.edu/…
Turkey is one of the seismically most active nations in Eurasia.
The cause of the dangerous seismic activity is the collision of several of the plates, which make up the surface of the earth like a giant, slowly moving jigsaw puzzle. Much of the Asian portion of Turkey is its own plate, the Anatolian Plate. This relatively small puzzle piece is being squeezed between two giants of the plate tectonic system. Coming from the south with a velocity of approximately one inch per year, the Arabian Plate is ramming into the Eurasian Plate, the stable platform extending along the northern edge of Turkey.
For reference, here is a map of the major tectonic plates around the globe. The boundaries, where plates slip, slide and subduct against each other, is where major earthquake and volcanic activity takes place.
A reminder that the Richter magnitude scale is a logarithmic; a M7.8 earthquake has 10 times the amplitude and 31.6 times the amount of energy released compared to an M6.8 earthquake.
Online reports
Building collapses, esp. during the pre-dawn hours, will unfortunately cause extensive injuries and fatalities.
Devastation in Kahramanmaraş in southern Turkey, 50 miles NW of Gaziantep.
Dreadful damage to buildings while people were sleeping.
A good summary and analysis of the situation -
Other News
The Biden administration has responded swiftly with offers of assistance and getting Federal agencies prepared.
Statement from President Biden this morning -
How to help
This thread has a list of relief organizations recommended by Hajer Naili, Dir. of Comms at civiliansinconflict.org.
Updates
Death toll is rising. The number rendered homeless will be staggering.
There have been dozens of aftershocks with M >= 4.3 along the fault line. A new quake hit recently at magnitude 7.5, depth 10 km, around 1:35 p.m. local time, followed by high aftershocks. The consequences will be devastating, causing new building collapses and older ones to compress even more.
Damage estimates are shockingly high and rising. Fatalities > 20,000.
Buildings flattened in Hatay.
Early reports of fatalities — close to 2,000. Unfortunately, the numbers will keep rising as many thousands must still be trapped inside collapsed buildings.
Epilogue
Nature can be red in tooth and claw. Let’s pray that it is less savage this time for the battered people of this region.