Nadir Fadil, a Syrian father who lost his wife and two of his children in an earthquake, searches under the rubble of his damaged home in Jableh, Syria. , Photo Credit: Reuters
As the death toll from the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria climbed above 35,000 on 13 February, search and rescue teams began to wind down their operations.
Last Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed 31,643 people in Turkey and 3,581 in Syria, officials and doctors said, bringing the total death toll to 35,224.
A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southeast Turkey and Syria on February 6, toppling buildings and sending panicked residents outside into a bitterly cold night.
According to the US Geological Survey, the focus of the earthquake was 18 km deep. The epicenter of the earthquake was about 33 km from Gaziantep. According to the USGS, the region has many buildings constructed of brittle concrete (which makes them prone to cracking, spalling, loss of strength, or steel corrosion), making them “extremely vulnerable to earthquake shaking”.
Turkey is repeatedly shaken by earthquake tremors. According to the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), about 33,000 earthquakes were recorded in the region in 2020 alone. Of these, 332 earthquakes were of magnitude 4.0 and above.