Turkey earthquake: Before & after Satellite images show destruction wrought by disaster

After the series of earthquakes jolted Turkey and neighbouring Syria, the devastating satellite images depicted the grave level of destruction and trail of flattened buildings reduced to rubble. An earthquake of magnitude of 7.8, struck at 4:17 am (01:17 GMT) on Monday in Turkey and Syria, with the epicenter in the Pazarcik district of Kahramanmaras province. Several aftershocks were felt after the second major quake measuring 7.6 rocked the same region.

Credit: USGS

Death toll climbs to 9,600

The combined death toll from the calamity has surpassed 9,600 and the casualties are expected to rise as frantic search and rescue of the survivors trapped under the debris is ongoing. Here are satellite images released by Maxar Technologies showing three Turkish towns ravaged by the worst earthquakes to hit the country in decades.

Credit: Maxar Technologies

At around 4:15 a.m. local time, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the south-central city of Nurdağı, close to the epicenter of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake. The civilian infrastructure was completely razed to the ground. The white emergency tents and vehicles were seen crowding Nurdağı street conducting the rescue operations. USGS observations and analyses indicated that the calamity occurred due to the East Anatolian fault system.

Credit: Maxar Technologies

An estimated 11,342  buildings have crumbled, of those, 5,775 have been completely destroyed. In Nurdağı, tall residential complexes have crumbled to the ground long after the earthquakes had hit the areas. “This earthquake produced intense shaking in the epicentral region,” said USGS scientist Kishor Jaiswal said in a statement.

“While newer buildings in other parts of Turkey [such as Istanbul] are designed with modern earthquake standards in mind, the area affected by this earthquake included more vulnerable buildings, like older types of concrete frames that were not designed from seismic considerations to absorb this much ground motion," he noted. 

Credit: Maxar Technologies

Buildings in Islahiye, Turkey collapsed as a result of tremendous shaking. Roads burst open and turned into rubble with the flattened infrastructure. İslahiye is located south of Nurdağı, and is among the heavily impacted areas. Structures west of the Hacı Ali Öztürk mosque laso appeared destroyed. Two large buildings in the vicinity of the mosque were shattered. 

Rescue teams' bulldozers were seen clearing the debris, and the first responders searched through the concrete to find bodies. As many as 30 aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 and larger continued to occur near the Mediterranean Sea, 100 km (60 miles) to the southwest, and the city of Malatya, 200 km to the northeast.