Today’s earthquake in Turkey, the most powerful in the country since 1939

A strong earthquake It has ‘woke up’ this Monday to Turkey and Syria, where more than 650 deaths and thousands of wounded have already been added. The earthquake, which has also been felt in other countries in the region, such as Lebanon or Israel, is the most powerful recorded in the area since 1939, when the strongest tremor occurred on Turkish soil: a 7.8 earthquake that ended with the death of 30,000 people. That of this Monday, of 7.4 according to the local measurement and of magnitude 7.8 according to most of the international meters, has been so powerful that it has even gone so far as to activate the tsunami alert in Italy, although it has been deactivated little after.

The earthquake took place after 04:00 in the morning on the Turkish border with Syria, in the province of Gaziantep. As explained by seismologist Stephen Hicks, from the Department of Earth Sciences at University College London, since the instrumental records of earthquakes began, around the beginning of the 20th century, an earthquake of this magnitude could be defined as “the largest earthquake ever recorded” in the region, although the truth is that in 1939 another tremor of this magnitude already took place.

On that occasion, the earthquake took place in the city of Erzincan, in the east of the country, on December 27 shortly before 2:00 in the morning: it was the most powerful of a tremor sequence along the North Anatolian fault line from that year to 1999. The Erzincan earthquake was also the natural event that caused the greatest number of fatalities, with a total of 32,968 deaths and close to 100,000 wounded.

“The epicenter [del terremoto] It’s close to the border with Syria. where there is a fairly high population density. Even before having more information, it is already known that this is not going to be good, “Hicks wrote shortly after the earthquake was registered. The data is not encouraging, and it does not stop growing: between the balance of victims in Turkey, with a relatively high update speed, and that of Syria, before noon on Monday, the death of about 1,200 people.

The worst earthquakes in Turkey

Due to its location, Turkey is a country prone to moderate to strong earthquakes. The country is based on the Anatolian plate, which is bordered by two major strike faults: the North Anatolian fault, which is the one that crosses the country from west to east, and the Oriental fault, located in the southeast area of ​​the country. These are some of the most significant earthquakes that the country has suffered in recent years:

May 22, 1971: Bingöl earthquake (6.9)

• 755 dead and more than 1,200 injured

The Bingöl earthquake occurred on May 22, 1971 shortly before 7:00 p.m., with a surface wave magnitude of 6.9 and a severe maximum intensity on the Mercalli intensity scale. It was a very superficial earthquake, at a shallow depth, between 3 and 7 kilometers. This was followed by several powerful aftershocks, including a 5.1 on the same day as the mainshock. The official balance of victims is 755 people.

October 30, 2020: earthquake between Izmir and Samos (7.0)

• 119 dead and 1,034 wounded

This tremor had the Greek island of Samos as its epicenter, but the Turkish city of Izmir was the most affected, with nearly 700 buildings collapsed and a death toll of 117 people; Another 1,034 were injured on Turkish soil, while in Greece only two deaths and 19 injuries were recorded. Although the tremor had as its epicenter a point 17 kilometers from the coast, was felt in areas as far away as Istanbul itself, as well as in Bodrum or Manisa. After this there were about 150 aftershocks, more than twenty of them above magnitude 4.

October 23, 2011: Van earthquake (7.1)

• 604 dead and 4,152 wounded

This was one of several earthquakes that occurred between October 23 and November 9, 2011 in the area of ​​the Turkish city of Van. The first, of magnitude 7.1, left more than 600 dead and more than 4,000 injured, in addition to the total destruction of 6,000 buildings and the partial destruction of as many others. More than 8,000 families, made up of an average of 7.6 people each, lost their homes, which means that nearly 60,000 people were left homeless after the earthquake. The November 9 earthquake, separate but within the same seismic system, killed 40 other people.

August 17, 1999: Izmit earthquake (7.6)

The Izmit earthquake —also known as Kocaeli or Nicomedia, in Greek— occurred at 3:00 in the morning on August 17, 1999, at a depth of 15 kilometers. It was one of the most destructive earthquakes in the region: the balance of fatalities oscillates between 17,100 and 18,300 deaths, consequence of an earthquake that lasted more than half a minute. This was part of a North Anatolian fault seismic sequence that had started in 1939, when the region’s strongest earthquake was recorded: this sequence caused large quakes that moved from east to west for about 60 years.