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Updated February 6th, 2023 at 20:34 IST

What caused the catastrophic earthquake in Turkey? All you need to know about fault lines

The world went into shock when a 7.8 earthquake rattled Turkey and Syria on Monday, killing over 1,300 people. But as the tragedy struck, many had questions.

Reported by: Deeksha Sharma
Turkey
Image: AP/Shutterstock | Image:self
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The world went into shock when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rattled Turkey and Syria on early Monday, killing over 2,300 people. But as the tragedy struck, many brimmed with questions. Why did the earthquake occur? And why so massively? Here, we try to explain. 

While Monday’s earthquake was termed the “biggest disaster since the 1939 Erzincan earthquake” by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it is one of the many that has struck the nation in the past. Essentially, this is because Turkey is situated in an extremely active seismic zone.

Around the world, it is one of the most earthquake-prone nations, according to As USA. The outermost layer of our home planet is made up of seven big chunks, known as tectonic plates. The borders of these plates are fault lines, i.e. fractures between two rocks. Any kind of movement between the faults results in earthquakes of varying intensity. 

Coming to Turkey, the country sits atop the Anatolian tectonic plate, which is placed right in the middle of the Eurasian and African plates. One of the most worrisome aspects of this plate is its North Anatolian fault (NAF) line, which is notorious for having extreme seismic activity.

The fault line is similar to that of San Andreas in terms of size, and has been the cause behind devastating earthquakes in the past. Turkey’s other fault line is the East Anatolian fault in the southeast. “It [NAF] is a very large fault zone, but this is a larger earthquake than they’ve experienced any time in recent memory,” Karl Lang, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech University’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, told CNN. 

A brief history of earthquakes in Turkey 

The fault lines have made Turkey the hotspot of deadly earthquakes, with the most devastating one recorded on December 27, 1939. It measured 8.2 on the Richter scale and claimed more than 30,000 lives. In November 1976, eastern Turkey’s Çaldıran was hit by a 7.3 magnitude quake, resulting in about 4,000 fatalities.

In August 1999, a 7.4 earthquake struck Turkey’s Izmit, killing over 17,000 people. It was a part of the series of earthquakes that were progressively sparked by the movement of the North Anatolian Fault in 1939. In 2011, the region of Van, which lies close to the border Turkey shares with Iran, was also hit by earthquakes in October and November with a death toll figure of 900.

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Published February 6th, 2023 at 20:34 IST

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