explained | Why were the earthquakes in Turkey so deadly?

Complete devastation: searching for survivors in a collapsed building after the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Turkey on February 11, 2023. | Image source: Reuters

The story so far: Two major earthquakes, one measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, and one measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale, have struck southeastern Turkey, killing at least 17,000 people, and causing significant damage in Turkey as well as Syria. Nearly 200 aftershocks followed with magnitude 6 earthquakes reported in the area three days after the first quake.

What causes earthquakes?

The Earth’s crust is made up of approximately 15 huge, fragmented plates called tectonic plates that are constantly moving. The land on which the buildings are built rests on these slabs. Plates are constantly colliding, pushing and sticking together and the meeting points of these plates are made up of a series of ‘faults’.

Pent-up energy is often released from overlapping plates, along fault lines, when pressure imbalances cause rocks on either side of the fault to reset. One set of rocks rising relative to the other is a “normal” fault, and one set sliding down relative to the other is a “reverse” fault. When they yell or step over each other, it’s a “fatal slip.” The energy emitted travels in the form of waves that cause the earth to shake.

What kind of earthquake happened in Turkey and Syria?

Turkey and Syria lie at the confluence of three plates – the Arabian Plate, the Anatolian Plate and the Eurasian Plate, making the region a very seismically active region. The Arabian Plate is pushing north into Europe, causing the Anatolian Plate (on which Turkey sits) to be pushed further west. The largest part of Turkey lies on the Anatolian Plate between two major faults: the North Anatolian Rift and the East Anatolian Rift.

Geologists say the quakes were of a “slip strike” and are typical of earthquakes in the area.

Why were these earthquakes devastating and deadly?

Since this region hosts many fault systems, there are many earthquakes that are recorded in the region. Only those that result in an energy release above a certain threshold are captured by seismographs. At a score of 7.8, the February 6 event is much larger than events the region has seen before. The fault system extends over a distance of approximately 190 km which is why the impact of the earthquakes was so far reaching.

The second earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.5, occurred to the north on a different but adjacent fault system called the Surgo Fault. The magnitudes of these earthquakes indicate that there will be many aftershocks that can be recorded in a wide radius and reports of tremors have been reported from as far as Cairo (950 km) and Istanbul (815 km).

Also read | Three ancient cities were damaged by the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria

Are there similarities with earthquakes in India? Can energy be built from latent pressure over the years?

The Indian plate, colliding with the Eurasian plate and deflecting upward, caused the formation of the Himalayas. The most common type of earthquake in the Himalayan region is due to reverse faults due to compressive forces between the two plates, says Suvrat Kher, a Pune-based geologist. “However, whether it is a sliding blow or a push, the waves generated can be powerful.” Scientists have long been warning of a long-awaited massive earthquake in the Garhwal-Kumaun range here due to what is known about the pattern of earthquakes in the area.

Based on the amount of “slip” (or movement) observed in the earthquake and measurements of the amount of “stress” that builds up each year, scientists can infer that the latent stress that builds up along the fault has been released. “We don’t have very accurate records going back, say, a thousand years, of earthquakes measuring 7 on the Richter scale. Records of the last 300 years or so indicate that those that did do not release all the pent-up energy and that’s why we think the energy of Significant – perhaps even magnitude 8 – is overdue.”However, predicting the day when it will happen is beyond our limits now,” said VK Gahlaut, a seismologist and professor at the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad.

He added that in the Turkish-Syrian earthquakes, energy was released from nearly 300 years of accumulated stress.

To what extent is the magnitude of earthquakes related to the damage they cause?

It is only widely true that the magnitude of earthquakes corresponds to death and destruction. Chile, a country with a long history of devastating earthquakes (more than 9), is considered a model for earthquake preparedness.

Despite earthquakes measuring more than magnitude 8 in 2014 and 2015, the number of casualties is minimal due to years of strict enforcement of building codes. This despite being a much poorer country than Japan, also known for its experience in earthquake-resistant structures.

Mr. Gallut said that the magnitude 9 earthquake, which caused a tsunami and radioactive leakage at the nuclear power plant in the country’s Fukushima Prefecture in 2011, did not damage the stability of the structure. “Just as the energy released rises exponentially in one step of the scale (Moment Magnitude), the cost of earthquake resistance also rises exponentially. On the other hand, if structures are built on a fault line, no amount of engineering can save them.”

The lack of enforcement of building codes in Turkey and the timing of the earthquake in the early morning are believed to be major factors in the death and destruction that occurred. “It’s a bit like India where we have a lot of rules (on building codes) but limited enforcement. The 1993 Latour earthquake, for example, had a magnitude of just over 6 but caused huge damage because building codes are not enforceable there,” said Mr. Khair. .

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