We Are All Earthquake Victims

Dear Readers,

Ten of our provinces were shaken by two major earthquakes in quick succession. If we add neighboring Syria, we see that the affected area of these two earthquakes covered a very large geographical region. The first earthquake, measuring 7.7 magnitude, occurred in the Pazarcık district of Kahramanmaraş on February 6 at 04:17 AM; the second earthquake, measuring 7.6 magnitude, occurred in the Elbistan district at 13:24 PM.

Leaving aside the aftershocks, the occurrence of these two, in a sense independent, earthquakes with a 9-hour and 7-minute interval unfortunately accelerated the destruction and increased the death toll. The earthquakes, centered in Pazarcık and Elbistan, both districts of Kahramanmaraş, with an aerial distance of 60 km between them, caused the fault line extending from Hatay to Malatya to rupture twice.

The proximity of both earthquake epicenters to the surface, the duration of the earthquakes (30 seconds and 56 seconds respectively), increased their destructive power. Furthermore, the freezing winter conditions and the fact that the earthquake caught everyone in their beds in the early morning significantly affected the scale of the disaster. In short, all possible negative factors combined.

The Earthquake's Toll:

1. The primary affected region is as large as Bulgaria (108,812 sq km).
2. 13,500,000 people were directly affected by the earthquake.
3. The earthquake occurred very close to the surface (7 km).
4. A 500 km long fault line ruptured (the longest land-based fault rupture in the world).
5. 320,453 workplaces in the region, known as the Anatolian Tigers and forming the economic backbone of Turkey, were directly affected.