A massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on Monday and is anticipated to be named one of the deadliest tremors in the last decade, said seismologists, as it was recorded to have a more than 100-kilometer rupture between the Anatolian and Arabian plates.
The tremor's epicenter was found to be located 26 kilometers east of Nurdagi, a Turkish city, and had a depth of roughly 18 kilometers on the East Anatolian Fault. The earthquake immediately radiated towards the northeast, destroying central Turkey and Syria.
Massive Syria-Turkey Earthquake
The East Anatolian Fault yielded little significant seismic activity during the 20th century, and an honorary research associate at the British Geological Survey, Roger Musson, said that when observing major earthquakes recorded by seismometers, the fault was primarily inactive.
Only three tremors in the area have been recorded with a 6.0 on the Richter Scale since 1970. However, one earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.0, was recorded in 1822 that was known to have resulted in the death of roughly 20,000 people, as per Reuters.
Authorities estimate that, on average, fewer than 20 tremors record over a 7.0 magnitude in any given year, making the Monday quake even more severe. When comparing an earthquake with a 6.2 magnitude that struck central Italy in 2016 and resulted in the deaths of roughly 300 people, the latest quake had 250 times as much energy.
The latest earthquake was so severe because the East Anatolian Fault is a strike-slip fault. Solid rock plates push up against each other across a vertical fault line. This process builds up stress continuously until one day, it slips in a horizontal motion, releasing a massive amount of stored strain that can result in an earthquake.
Some believe that the San Andreas Fault in California is probably the most famous strike-slip fault in the world, as scientists warn that it could sooner or later result in a catastrophic quake that is long overdue.
Resulting Deaths and Rescue Efforts
The latest tremor was associated with the deaths of more than 3,400 people and the injury of thousands of others. According to CNN, authorities said that they expect the death toll to rise as rescue efforts are still underway.
In a statement on Monday following the quake, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Jeff Flake, said that two search and rescue teams would be deployed to the affected areas to assist local officials. He noted that the teams are what they call heavy units that are equipped with roughly 70 personnel, including search dogs and paramedics.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the incident the "biggest disaster" that the nation has seen since the 1939 Erzincan earthquake that resulted in the deaths of roughly 33,000 people.
The earthquake centered in the province of Kahramanmaras was powerful enough to bring down entire apartment blocks in various cities and caused destruction to millions of Syrians displaced by years of war, said Aljazeera.
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