Earthquake in Turkey and Syria

Earthquake in Turkey and Syria

News: Turkey has been getting hammered by a series of powerful earthquakes since the early hours of Monday, with the first one, a quake of magnitude 7.8, being described as the strongest the country has experienced in over a century.

What are earthquakes?
 According to WHO, an earthquake is a violent and abrupt shaking of the ground, caused by movement between tectonic plates along a fault line in the earth’s crust. Earthquakes can result in the ground shaking, soil liquefaction, landslides, fissures, avalanches, fires and tsunamis.
 The extent of destruction and harm caused by an earthquake depends on magnitude, intensity and duration, the local geology, the time of day that it occurs, building and industrial plant design and materials and the risk-management measures put in place.

About Earthquake in Turkey and Syria:
 The region where the earthquake has struck lies along a well-known seismic fault line called the Anatolia tectonic block that runs through northern, central, and eastern Turkey.
 It is a seismically active zone — though not as active as, say, the Himalayan region which is one of the most dangerous regions in the world from the perspective of earthquakes.
 The seismicity in this region is a result of interactions between the African, Eurasian, and Arabian plates.

Do shallow earthquakes cause more damage?
 Recent earthquakes in Turkey emerged from relatively shallow depths which made them devastating. The first earthquake, of magnitude 7.8, originated 17.9 km below the Earth’s surface. All the subsequent ones, including the one of 7.5 magnitude, emerged from even closer to the surface.
 Shallow earthquakes are generally more devastating because they carry greater energy when they emerge on the surface.
 Deeper earthquakes lose much of their energy by the time they come to the surface. The deeper quakes spread farther though — the seismic waves move conically upwards to the surface — even as they lose energy while travelling greater distances, and hence cause less damage.

What does the term Magnitude mean?
 Magnitude is a measure of how big the waves are, while the strength refers to the energy it carries.
 Magnitude is measured on a logarithmic scale, which means the seismic waves produced by a magnitude 6 earthquake have 10 times higher amplitude than the ones produced by a magnitude 5 earthquake. The energy differential is even higher, 32 times for every change of 1 in magnitude.

Why do earthquakes remain unpredictable?
 They remain most common hazard which cannot be predicted as no early warning systems can be developed.
 It is only possible to offer a lead time of a few seconds between the time of the origin of the earthquake and the time it reaches the Earth’s surface.
 Scientists have been able to map the areas that are earthquake prone, and are likely to generate earthquakes in future, but there is no way to predict when.

What are the areas affected by recent Earthquake?
 Nurdagi in southern Turkey’s Gaziantep province, Ekinozu in Kahramanmaras province.

How has India helped Turkey?
 India is sending an Army medical team, National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) personnel, and medical supplies.
 The medical team comprises critical care specialist teams to include orthopaedic surgical Team, general surgical specialist team, medical specialist teams apart from other medical teams.
 Sending aid to Turkey is yet another instance of India quickly coming in support of a country hit by a natural disaster.