On a black 6th of Feb 2023 in Turkey…

On 6 February 2023, at 4:17 am, Turkey and Syria has been rocked by a fatal earthquake magnitude of 7.8 with tremors felt as far away as: Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Georgia, Armenia and Palestine.

The epicentre is in Kahramanmaras that affected other nations like: Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kitlis, Malatya, Mardin, Mersin, Sanliurfa, Osmaniye and Elazig. These states were mostly at a magnitude of less than 7.8. But damage was still inevitable. Many aftershocks are also strucking Turkey continuesly.

Buildings, new apartments and houses have brutally collapsed at a rapid speed when many residents were in deep sleep. Children are trapped under debris parts calling for help in the freezing winter weather.

The Turkish citizens are mourning in pain, awaiting to be rescued from under debris or gone missing and homeless with no warm homes, water, food, fire, toilets, camping tents, electricity and internet. What’s left is patience and faith to be rescued and renewal renevation of a safe home, school and job.

Rescue teams have gotten on the crashed scenes but in very late delays from short of staff; resulting in many victims loss of lives while waiting to be rescued; stuck under debris in the cold. Thankful to be alive and mourning for their loved ones grieving passings. It was all like a war zone to see this disastrous nightmare for the victims.

A 40 year old man named Ahmet Rustem Mesen from Adiyaman was interviewed by the freelance journalist, (Seni Haks). He explains what he went through that paralysing moment.

Journalist: "So tell me about what happened and what you felt in that moment?"

Ahmet: "I heard a sound, a buzzing sound, underground. That sound was mind-blowing. You can’t even be aware of the shaking. That feeling was like passing out that you want to throw yourself out of the window from that fear. It’s unthinkable, it was only a few minutes but it felt like hours.

All your logic is gone and everyone was doing the same things. There are two roads and the first person went that way and the rest followed in fear. My heart was going crazy and some people were trying to think harder about what to do next.

Then it was stopped and I tried to hear everything to see if it was going to happen again because it felt like it was going to happen anytime soon but it was very light. But to escape was hard for people. To escape, there must be a miracle and patience, a lot of patience. And at the end, it’s a mourning mood".

Modern buildings were not the only ones damaged. Grand Isias Hotel in Adiyaman, New Mosque in Malatya and Gaziantep Castle have collapsed as well.

The devastating Kahramanmaras earthquake is the worst to hit in one hundred years since the earthquake in Duzce in 1999; when more than 17,000 people died. The death toll has surpassed: 40,000, injuries: 30,000, affected: 14 Million, buildings destroyed: 10,000. Updated estimations will always be subject to change.

The Charity volunteerers have contributed to appeal and raise money from countries all around the world to show their warm sympathies and condolences to Turkey and Syria.

One reason of the Kahramanmaras earthquake was because Authorities warned construction owners to stop using cheap, faulty bricks and concrete otherwise Earthquakes will arise but they disregarded for a fifteen year postponement and no action was taken because of high expenses and didn’t want to meet the required fundings.

Which means that contractors took shortcuts, tried to economise using sub-par materials and builders failed to do their due diligence before approving construction plans and projects which was ashame, compromising and illegal.

For years, held conferences, and written reports have been sent to construction owners telling them big earthquakes will certainly hit cities like, Hatay and Gaziantep. Explaining however strong, no building built directly on a fault line can survive an earthquake and that the cities would be destroyed.

Authorities have told tradies that they should create accurate fault-line maps for the entire country and transform areas directly on active fault lines into green zones with construction bans. But no one listened.

Turkey has seismic codes to try to prevent buildings from collapsing. But some newer buildings may not have been up to code. That’s why not all buildings collapsed. As a proof, in Istanbul, there's a lot of illegal construction that goes on.

Reinforcing or rebuilding all at-risk buildings in all earthquake-prone areas would be technically and logistically difficult and pricey. Yet it is a task that cannot be avoided or delayed for any country.

Experts believe the government, like the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan could have taken further precautions to ensure all buildings were safe and earthquake design regulations were being performed in all contexts.

It is clear that penniless hardship will never be so bad compared to the past economic crisis. The damage caused, will be a permanent scar for the Turkmen country and it’s economy leading to extreme homelessness and poverty like never before.

The Earth's crust is made up of separate bits, called plates, that nestle alongside each other. These plates often try to move but are prevented by the friction of rubbing up against an adjoining one. But sometimes the pressure builds until one plate suddenly jerks across, causing the road surface to move and crack.

The Arabian Peninsula is part of a tectonic plate that was making it's way north into the Eurasian Plate, and the entire nation of Turkey was getting squeezed aside. Arabia was slowly moving north and was colliding with Turkey, and Turkey was moving out of the way to the west.

Which means that it was the Arabian plate moving northwards and grinding against the Anatolian plate. The East Anatolian fault is a strike-slip fault. Which shows the reason why the shaking was spread out for many kilometers along the fault.

Solid rock plates were pushing up against each other across a vertical fault line, building stress until one finally slipped in a horizontal motion, releasing a tremendous amount of enforce that triggered the earthquake.

To simplify geologically, another reason why the Kahramanmaras earthquake occurred was because two tectonic plates of the Earth were vertically rubbing then sliding horizontally past each other with friction.