More than 4,000 killed in Turkey, Syria after powerful earthquake and aftershocks 2023

 

More than 4,000 killed in Turkey, Syria after powerful earthquake and aftershocks

SANLIURFA, Turkey — A 7.8-magnitude earthquake in southern Turkey early Monday killed more than 4,000 people there and in neighboring Syria, officials said, as rescuers searched flattened buildings in frigid weather for survivors. The earthquake — felt as far away as Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Egypt — occurred in Kahramanmaras province, north of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border.

Rescue efforts are ongoing, and the number of people killed, injured and displaced probably will climb.

The initial quake was followed by dozens of powerful aftershocks, including one recorded at 7.5 magnitude in the same fault zone of south-central Turkey on Monday afternoon. Most of the damage is in southern Turkey and northern and central Syria.

Here’s what to know

• At least 2,900 people were killed and nearly 16,000 injured in Turkey, state media said.
• In Syria, 711 people have been reported killed so far, with more than 1,400 injured, in government-controlled regions, mostly in Latakia, Hama, Aleppo and Tartus, according to state media reported.
• The death toll in rebel-held northwestern Syria is at least 740, according to a representative of the Syrian Civil Defense, an aid group that works in areas outside government control; more than 2,000 civilians were injured, with hundreds trapped under rubble and dozens of buildings collapsed, the group said.
• The quake could be the largest recorded in the region, which sits on an earthquake-prone belt known as the Anatolia fault, one seismologist said.

Why it’s so hard to predict an earthquake

Houses crumbled and buildings flattened within seconds of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria early Monday morning, leaving rescue workers scrambling to find survivors among the dead.

The horror of the near-instantaneous destruction raises a question: Why didn’t anyone know the earthquake was coming?

The answer is tricky. The ability to predict where and when an earthquake will occur has eluded earth scientists for years, though the stakes couldn’t be higher. Earthquakes account for nearly half of all deaths from natural disasters over almost two decades, according to the World Health Organization.