Turkey and Syria are living a nightmare today. More than 2,500 people lost their lives in the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that occurred in the region, and thousands are missing. This is one of the most severe earthquakes in the region in at least a century, and although Turkey has implemented measures (such as constructing resilient buildings) to improve preparedness and response to seismic disasters, not all of its building stock has been restored and the country continues to be earthquake-free. adequate preparation

Additionally, the lack of supervision causes many builders to bypass regulations. The result was chaos as it is today.

a disaster. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported that an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale shook Turkey’s southeastern provinces and northern Syria. Specifically, it happened at 4.17 and lasted for 30 seconds. The problem is that it’s followed by another 7.6 magnitude one, about 80 kilometers to the north. The shaking was felt in 14 countries such as Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus and Jordan.

Turkish authorities have so far reported 1,500 dead and 5,383 injured and declared a level 4 state of emergency, which includes a request for international assistance. The Ministry of Health says more than 430 people have died and 1,042 have been injured in war-torn Syria for more than 11 years.

Why was it so deadly? First of all: the relatively shallow epicenter caused severe damage to buildings on the surface. The second thing: it happened at dawn, when people were sleeping. It should be taken into account that approximately 2,900 buildings have been demolished in Turkey. There are at least two hospitals, one in Hatay and the other in Iskenderun. However, it is not only the shaking that causes the destruction, but also the durability of the buildings.

Professor of risk communication at the University of Portsmouth, Dr. “Resilient infrastructure is patchy in southern Turkey and particularly Syria,” explains Carmen Solana in this BBC article. Mustafa Erdik, a professor at the Istanbul Earthquake Research Institute, says, “One of the reasons why the number of victims is so high is the poor quality of the buildings.” Also, this was an area where there had been no major earthquakes or warnings for 200 years, so the level of preparedness was lower than in a more familiar area.

Is it a ready country? After the 1999 earthquake, the Turkish government realized that risks needed to be mitigated urgently in an earthquake-prone country, and passed a law the following year mandating mandatory design checks and construction inspections on all buildings. However, not all of the building stock has been updated, and the lack of supervision allows some builders to ignore regulations.

That is, buildings constructed in accordance with earthquake resistant design rules are still in the minority. And most of the collapses are from before 2000.

More than a third of buildings are not durable. A report prepared by the Turkish Union of Architects and Engineers (Tmmob) says, “There are 20 million buildings in our country. Seven million of them are not ready to withstand a major earthquake.” And the problem is that construction fire has increased the risk of damage in cities like Istanbul, according to another report.

A very active seismic zone. To understand this phenomenon, it is necessary to take into account that Turkey is located in one of the most active earthquake zones in the world. Most of the country falls on the Anatolian plate, which lies between two major platforms, Eurasia and Africa, and a third minor plate, the Arabian, respectively. This causes several faults to cross the country and earthquakes are more likely.

Izmit, near Istanbul, and the surrounding Kocaeli region were rocked in 1999 by a 7.4 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 17,000 people. In 2011, two more killed more than 700 people. Experts have long warned that a major earthquake could devastate Istanbul in the future. He even published a study in the journal of the German Earth Sciences Research Center (GFZ). Nature Where they argue that the tectonic tension of the Anatolian plate is even higher than in 1999, such earthquakes are expected to be more frequent and possibly more severe.

Images: GTRES