Huge earthquake hits Turkey and Syria

avatar

kahramanmaras_earthquake_20230206.png
Kahramanmaras Earthquake: affected area map
Image: United States Geological Survey

Early this morning, Monday, 6 February a powerful earthquake hit the area stranding southern Turkey and northeastern Syria. The quake hit at 04:17 in the morning local time (01:17 Zulu time). There were two primary shocks, at 7.8 on the Richter scale, and numerous aftershocks some as powerful as 6.7.

This makes it an extremely powerful earthquake. In comparison, the 1988 Spitak Earthquake in Armenia that took the lives of up to 50,000 people was only a 6.8 one. At this point, today's earthquake, named Kahramanmaras Earthquake after the name of the Turkish town close to one of the epicenters at this point has a death toll of over 3,000. The death toll is bound to rise further but hopefully it will never reach the same mark as the Spitak one where catastrophic death toll in Armenia in 1988 was to a large degree a consequence of extremely poor quality of Soviet construction.

My heart goes out to those who suffered death or injury in this horrible event as well as their family and friends. I am sure so do many other people and many are working as hard as they can to provide help. It is not easy. Local rescue and medical facilities are most likely overburdened. Sadly, some victims may still be alive but help may not come in time. That is reality of all disasters of this size and scale.

According to what little I know of emergency response the first 72 hours are critical. Small groups with connections on the ground are often most effective at getting help where it is most needed. If you know of any please share the info so people can donate and otherwise help - this is one of most powerful tools for leveraging the power of the internet in a disaster.

The weather is not helping as at least some of the most affected areas are now also affected by a sub-freezing temperature and snowfall. That is the sort of weather that can easily finish off a lightly wounded casualty. If you are in the area, your basement, or a spare shed, or a bundle of firewood or an old tent can literally save a life. So can a timely an accurate identification of a location where victims may be buried under debris. That is another area in which modern communications can make a critical difference. Let us hope the rescue and relief operation is run properly and efficiently.

References

Huge earthquake kills 2,600 in Turkey and Syria, bad weather worsens plight
Mert Ozkan and Kinda Makieh, Reuters, 6 February 2023

2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes

Seismic magnitude scales (wiki)

Richter magnitude scale (wiki)

1988 Armenian earthquake (wiki)

Links

Follow the link below to see related publications and support this publication
Linktree



0
0
0.000
12 comments
avatar

pixresteemer_incognito_angel_mini.png
Bang, I did it again... I just rehived your post!
Week 142 of my contest just started...you can now check the winners of the previous week!
!BEER
3

0
0
0.000
avatar

A catastrophe for my country...

0
0
0.000
avatar

It sure is.
Was there any damage to Istanbul?

0
0
0.000
avatar
(Edited)

No, it is too far to Istanbul, but Istanbul is on another fault line.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I think pretty much all of Turkey is a seismically active zone.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Congratulations @borepstein! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)

You published more than 4800 posts.
Your next target is to reach 4900 posts.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

To support your work, I also upvoted your post!

Check out our last posts:

Our Hive Power Delegations to the January PUM Winners
Feedback from the February Hive Power Up Day
Hive Power Up Month Challenge - January 2023 Winners List
The Hive Gamification Proposal
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
0
0
0.000
avatar

Its very bad situation for Turkey & Syria
Yesterday when we hear this news we are shocked

0
0
0.000
avatar

I have heard that, Some Scientist had predicted this Earth quake 5 or 6 days ago. I know we can't do anything against natural Disaster, but Human's should be moved from the pointed area. I'm prayer for the people of turkey in every prayer. I have heard there has been 150 after shocks, is it true ?

0
0
0.000
avatar

Ever since I heard this news, my heart is very sad and I have also seen the video. There has been a lot of loss of life. We can only pray that Allah grant them a place in heaven. We should all help our Turkish brothers and sisters in this difficult time.

0
0
0.000