It is one of the strongest earthquakes ever measured in Turkey: In the south-east of Turkey, thousands of people died and were injured after severe tremors. The country is repeatedly hit by deadly earthquakes. The reason is its special location on the globe.
Southern Turkey is rocked by one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the country. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a magnitude of 7.8 for the main quake. The Turkish disaster service Afad later corrected the initially reported strength from 7.4 to 7.7.
This makes it the most severe tremor in Turkey since at least 1939. According to an overview by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Erzincan earthquake at that time reached a magnitude of 7.7. More than 30,000 people died in the catastrophe in eastern Anatolia.
Turkey is repeatedly shaken by severe earthquakes with many fatalities. The reason for this is its location: the country lies, among other things, on the comparatively small Anatolian tectonic plate. This rubs against the northward pushing Arabian Plate. Where both plates touch, a so-called transform fault occurs. The rock gets stuck there, and energy builds up. When the energy exceeds the strength of the rock, rupture occurs and the earth trembles.
The region now affected is also close to a transform fault called the East Anatolian Fault. This stretches across south-eastern Turkey. Since 1970, however, there have only been three earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater within a 250-kilometer radius of the current quake. The strongest of these, a magnitude 6.7 quake, struck further northeast on January 24, 2020.
There is another transform fault troubling Turkey: the North Anatolian Fault. It runs along the northern edge of the Anatolian Peninsula. The mega-city of Istanbul is also located on this fault line, which is why a severe earthquake is expected there at any time.
Because Turkey is practically wedged between moving continental plates, it is repeatedly shaken by severe earthquakes. Their list is long as a result. These were the deadliest in recent years:
October 2020: The 7.0 magnitude Aegean earthquake near Samos killed more than 100 people in Turkey and Greece. More than a dozen buildings collapsed in the nearby Turkish city of Izmir.
January 2020: A 6.7 magnitude quake in eastern Turkey killed more than 40 people. The epicenter was near the town of Sivrice in Elazig province. More than 1600 people were injured.
October 2011: The earthquake in the eastern province of Van had a magnitude of 7.1. The epicenter was in far east Turkey and the quake was also felt in northern Iraq. There were more than 600 fatalities, more than 2600 people were injured.
March 2010: An earthquake killed 51 people in eastern Turkey’s Elazig province. It caused severe damage in several villages. The quake had a magnitude of 6.1.
August 1999: The deadliest earthquake in recent history – more than 17,000 people died in the quake in Izmit/Gölcük, not far from Istanbul, a city of over a million inhabitants. 50,000 people were injured and more than 73,000 houses were damaged. The damage amounted to around 20 billion euros. The quake had a magnitude of 7.6.
March 1992: At least 653 people died in an earthquake in Erzincan province in eastern Turkey. Another 2,000 or so were injured. The earthquake at a depth of 27 kilometers reached a magnitude of 6.9. More than 8000 houses were damaged.
November 1976: A severe earthquake in the province of Van near the city of Muradiye in eastern Turkey claimed around 5,000 lives. The magnitude of the quake was measured at 7.3.
December 1939: With a magnitude of 7.7 one of the most serious earthquakes in Turkey in historical times. At that time, too, the east of Turkey was affected. The strong earthquake near the city of Erzincan killed more than 32,000 people and injured another 100,000. Around 120,000 houses were damaged.
