Earthquake Kills More Than 500 in Turkey and Syria

[Canoeyawl]

7.8 magnitude
This is a bad deal
Thousands wounded, death toll still rising

[hawkeye54]

Just saw an update - second quake at approx 7.5 90 miles away , death toll now north of 1300 . ..

[George.]

2100+ dead.

As always, the final death toll will probably be 10x that.

[hawkeye54]

There was some scary video of entire buildings collapsing . I experienced the Sylmar quake, but it was nothing like this one.




Rick

[George Jung]

noticed some buildings crumbled... others, next to them, untouched.


Sub-standard building?

[Jimmy W]

I first heard about the quake late last night. At that time they said at least 100 dead. I knew that would go way up with a 7.8.

[dutchpp]

It's 2300 deaths at this moment, there was another earthquake this afternoon with force 7.7 in Turkey.

[LeeG]

noticed some buildings crumbled... others, next to them, untouched.


Sub-standard building?

Largest earthquake since 1939. Population has grown since 1939. When the Cascadia fault goes there will be 1000’s killed in the Northwest with building standards mitigating many casualties but there’s no way around it, a catastrophe is a catastrophe.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/scien...ake-magnitude/

Monday’s event is thought to be the largest quake to occur anywhere in Turkey since 1939, when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck in the northeastern part of the country. In March 1970, a destructive 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit western Turkey, killing more than 1,000 people and destroying more than 8,000 buildings.
And in August 1999, a devastating 7.4-magnitude earthquake shook northwestern Turkey, causing more than 17,000 deaths and displacing more than 250,000 people. It was followed by another 7.2 earthquake a few months later that killed more than 800 people. A 6.7-magnitude earthquake also struck eastern Turkey on Jan. 24, 2020.

[Dave Hadfield]

Very sad indeed.

OTOH, it's always amazed me to see that these drystone walls were so brilliantly designed and executed that they have survived 600 years of quakes, in a place where it happens often.

RandomStrength.

[dutchpp]

At this moment there are more than 5000 deaths, the numbers go up rapidly.

[Paul Pless]

When the Cascadia fault goes there will be 1000’s killed in the Northwest with building standards mitigating many casualties but there’s no way around it, a catastrophe is a catastrophe.

will there be tsunami?

[Jim Mahan]

That depends, I think, on the type of quake. The tsunami happens when there is a sudden up down shift of one side of the fault. In the Cascadia, it could be any one of the three major types. Strike slip, where the two sides slip past each other horizontally, there won't be much displacement of the water above the fault. In either normal or reverse, the sudden uplifting or falling away of one side creates the wave.



I remember that Turkish quake from nineteen-seventy. I was home during the day, it must've been a weekend or the summer. What I remember, and must've heard wrong, was that there was two hundred thousand dead. It must've been that many homeless, that would add up. To answer a question I heard earlier, why does the quake do that much structural damage. Due to the age of some of the cities and towns, building standards would be older, and not up to modern codes. Even though I apparently remembered the death statistic wrong, I remember having the thought that my, god, you'd think a tragedy of that magnitude with that much sudden death would cause a palpable psychic reverberation in the world.

[Paul Pless]

it was a saturday

[LeeG]

will there be tsunami?

wasn’t there evidence of a tsunami in previous Cascadia earthquakes? I think they occur every 400-800 yrs. and records in Japan mention a tsunami. Oh hell I could be mixing up events. brb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1700_Cascadia_earthquake

The geological record reveals that "great earthquakes" (those with moment magnitude 8 or higher) occur in the Cascadia subduction zone about every 500 years on average, often accompanied by tsunamis. There is evidence of at least 13 events at intervals from about 300 to 900 years with an average of 570–590 years.[15] Previous earthquakes are estimated to have been in AD 1310, AD 810, AD 400, 170 BC and 600 BC.[citation needed]
.


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Kenneth Murphy, who directs FEMA's Region X, the division responsible for Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska, put it quite dramatically: "Our operating assumption is that everything west of Interstate 5 will be toast."[17]

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[George.]

How quickly a thread about a major catastrophe in Turkey becomes a thread about the US... I suppose it keeps it from sinking.

[LeeG]

How quickly a thread about a major catastrophe in Turkey becomes a thread about the US... I suppose it keeps it from sinking.

stick around, we could make it about you.


btw the Cascadia Fault isn’t the US

[StevenBauer]

We have a 9 hour layover in Istanbul next week. We haven’t heard anything from the airline yet. I know at least three airports in the south of the country are closed. One of them is accepting emergency supply flights only. Such a tragedy for those involved. RIP.

[Canoez]

noticed some buildings crumbled... others, next to them, untouched.


Sub-standard building?

Probably more about the age of the buildings. At some point in the past, I know that Turkiye instituted changes to the building codes to make new construction more earthquake proof. That said, there may have been things happening to undermine those codes. Can't speak to the situation in Syria.

[dutchpp]

Probably more about the age of the buildings. At some point in the past, I know that Turkiye instituted changes to the building codes to make new construction more earthquake proof. That said, there may have been things happening to undermine those codes. Can't speak to the situation in Syria.

The structural weakness of the buildings is mainly caused by insufficient supervision and control of the building codes. It's easy to bribe the building inspectors.
One of the election promises of Erdogan was an amnesty for those who have built illegal additional floors on top of their buildings.

[Canoeyawl]

Over 6000 dead now
This is a tragedy of Biblical proportions

[dutchpp]

7200 deaths now, the number will go up rapidly.
The temperature in the area is well below 0 degrees Celsius, most of the the people who are still lying below the debris and who are still alive will die of hypothermia this night.

[Nicholas Carey]

Over 6000 dead now
This is a tragedy of Biblical proportions

I believe the last couple of big shakers Turkey got killed something like 17,000 (August 1999 in İzmit, magnitude 7.6).

Another one in December 1939, magnitude 7.8 in Erzincan, killed some 32,700.

Expect the head count to go up. Pretty sure Turkish building codes are lax with respect to seismic standards and/or are widely ignored.

[bluedog225]

I saw the amazon buildings under construction in seattle. The amount of rebar in the columns was unbelievable. It appeared there would be more steel than concrete. I don’t see turkey ever building to that standard. For a lot of reasons.

[WX]

I watched footage of a number of multi-storey buildings collapse, and there didn't seem to be much in the way of reinforcing.

[bluedog225]

The photos are heartbreaking.

[Nicholas Carey]

I saw the Amazon buildings under construction in Seattle. The amount of rebar in the columns was unbelievable. It appeared there would be more steel than concrete. I don’t see turkey ever building to that standard. For a lot of reasons.

When we remodeled our house here in Seattle, we tore down the old rotten deck and stoop. The architect had designed a new one — a big wrap around porch, covered with a pergola and a roof made of acrylic greenhouse glazing. It's supported by 8x8 doug fir posts that rest on big concrete footings, probably 4 foot high and 3 foot square — the architect's intent was to provide a certain amount of gravitas, in which he succeeded.

No frost here in the drizzly PNW, so the footings are just set in the ground about a foot. And the whole porch roof and, at most, the whole pergola/roof assembly can't possibly weight more than 1,000 pounds, tops. There's 4 of these footings supporting 6 of these 8x8 doug fir posts, with the whole load in compression.

The rebar schedule the engineer specified was insane. Might have made a little sense if the footings were carrying thousands of pounds each, but they're not. I suspect that each of those footers weighs more than the load it's carrying.

[dutchpp]

Almost 9500 victims at this moment and some significant parts of the affected area haven't been reached by the emergency services yet.
The total numbers could quadruple, or even more..

3 hours later 11000+ victims.

[Canoez]

Horrific. First the earthquake, now dealing with the winter weather and relatively slow response to a massive tragedy. I am afraid those numbers will continue to rise. Here’s hoping the incoming aid isn’t too late.

[Andrew2]

The structural weakness of the buildings is mainly caused by insufficient supervision and control of the building codes. It's easy to bribe the building inspectors.
One of the election promises of Erdogan was an amnesty for those who have built illegal additional floors on top of their buildings.

Also a problem in other places near there. Adding extra stories after already scrimping on the materials for the approved building. Places in India and Egypt fall down without earthquakes.

One thing I learned after living in a mild earthquake zone, was that the codes are for keeping the building upright and sort of intact, allowing people to get out. If it has to be rebuilt after, less important.

[JimD]

My brother was close to the epicentre of a quake in Guatemala that reportedly killed about 25K. Well built structures survived, poorly built ones, where the poor people lived did not.

[Canoeyawl]

15,000 dead as of 1:00 am EST

the devastation is impossible to imagine

[dutchpp]

16.000+ deaths 08:00 UTC.
During the night there were still some small children found alive under the debris.
Since yesterday we see a lot of private and corporate initiatives in the NW European countries to send help to Turkey and Syria, most of these countries have a large Turkish and Syrian community. Some of these people have lost 50! relatives.

[lupussonic]

I was in an earthquake in Athens in the early 80's. Lots of skimping on rebar amount and thickness in the hotels and apartments downtown. Horrible results.

[George.]

There are now estimates of * 180,000 people * buried under rubble!

Stalin was wrong.

[Joe (SoCal)]

We are now at 20,000 dead