Large earthquake on the Turkey/Syria border

[Don1]

7.8 with some meaty aftershocks. Lots of collapsed buildings and the added issue of cold and snow - there's a storm in the area as well. I hope the toll isn't going to be too bad - it happened early in the morning so a lot of people in bed.

[Whoozit]

I was in Istanbul in 1999 during a 7.6 Richter quake. It's unsettling to say the least, even being at the time in a modern hotel building. The aftershocks were immense for days.

[Gio G]

Whoozit said:

I was in Istanbul in 1999 during a 7.6 Richter quake. It's unsettling to say the least, even being at the time in a modern hotel building. The aftershocks were immense for days.

The family and I felt a near 7 Richter in Bali, many miles away from the epicentre in Lombok, a very unforgettable/terrifying experience. Feel for those affected..

G

[Cold]

The BBC is reporting over 1000 casualties with the number expected to rise.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/64533954

[CrutyRammers]

Looks really bad

[Diderot]

Really dreadful.

Sobering thing is that for each integer on the Richter scale, the strength increases 33x.

[wiggy001]

Diderot said:

Really dreadful.

Sobering thing is that for each integer on the Richter scale, the strength increases 33x.

I did not know that, assumed it was linear.

[DeltonaS]

Diderot said:

Really dreadful.

Sobering thing is that for each integer on the Richter scale, the strength increases 33x.

I believe the severity of a shock also depends on the depth at which the earthquake takes place.

[gotoPzero]

For anyone interested in earth quakes you can set up alerts on the USGS site. I travel quite a lot so its always good to be able to access the data straight away.

I have one set up for anything over 7. You can then go into the event page and it will give you the basic information and projections on damages and the like plus if there is any threat of a tsunami.

Knew straight away this was a bad one as it was rated "red" and that means its a very severe quake with a lot of deaths and massive property damage.

This one was upgraded from a 7.2 to a 7.8 I think. Already had another 7+ aftershock.

Whats crazy is the big one in Japan was a mag 9.0 and the quake went on for 6 minutes. Cant imagine something like that.

[RichFN2]

Over 1500 confirmed dead according to Sky News.

They are also claiming 1700 buildings have collapsed, if true then the death toll is going to be much higher

[Whoozit]

gotoPzero said:

For anyone interested in earth quakes you can set up alerts on the USGS site. I travel quite a lot so its always good to be able to access the data straight away.

Thanks, useful. I'm about to head to Japan for a week. It's been at the back of my mind although tbh I couldn't be in a better prepared country.

[gotoPzero]

RichFN2 said:

Over 1500 confirmed dead according to Sky News.

They are also claiming 1700 buildings have collapsed, if true then the death toll is going to be much higher

The estimate on the USGS page from the size of the quake and the population densities is up to 10,000.

[Hungrymc]

It's horrific, BBC now saying 1900 killed.

[Whoozit]

Hungrymc said:

It's horrific, BBC now saying 1900 killed.

From the 1999 experience I was in, and today's phone footage I've seen, some apartment blocks aren't built to earthquake standard (if any standard). When the ground shakes, the pillars fold and the entire building pancakes.

[Byker28i]

Musk asked for API help for the Turkish earthquake, for mapping calls for help to a map rapidly, looks like many others have stepped forward to help so far. They've had people tweet for help!

https://twitter.com/esesci/status/1622513373706620...

[Gareth79]

I'm wondering how this will affect Turkey's international relations, and therefore Ukraine and NATO.

[Carl_Manchester]

Whoozit said:

I was in Istanbul in 1999 during a 7.6 Richter quake. It's unsettling to say the least, even being at the time in a modern hotel building. The aftershocks were immense for days.

I was in Rome during the Italian April 2009 quake (it was about a 6 at the epicentre) and I awoke at night to see concrete floor and the walls rippling. I thought the Russians had nuked the City and ran for the bath. I did not think that concrete could ripple like that, it was like someone had thrown a stone into still water.

[Square Leg]

Watching the news now, expert saying the aftershocks have hit 7.6 which is unusual for them to be almost as high as the original quake.
Estimate that 10k could be killed.

[Terzo123]

Just seen the ITV news report on it.

Horrendous.

I can easily imagine the number of dead will increase significantly over initial estimates.

[VTC]

Square Leg said:

Watching the news now, expert saying the aftershocks have hit 7.6 which is unusual for them to be almost as high as the original quake.
Estimate that 10k could be killed.

The second 7.6 was a separate event north of the First according to the TRT channel Here
we were here for the 2017 Quake of 6.7 and that was horrendous, 7.6-7 etc x10 the magnitude.

Adana is a mass of high rise living I was surprised only a few blocks had come down,
Sanlurfa is packed with refugees too from Syria,

The real kicker is the timing of the first quake with people in bed asleep mainly.

there have been around 30 subsequent quakes in the general region ranging from 3.8 upwards with the majority around 5.5

the quake alert app has been pinging all day today.