Two weeks after the strong earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the border area between the two countries was again hit by a strong tremor tonight. It had a force of at least 6.3 on the Richter scale. Three people were killed and hundreds injured in Turkey. More victims are feared. How exceptional is this in such a short time after the previous devastating quake? “I fear that more earthquakes will follow,” says geologist Marc De Batist (UGent).
“The ground sank under our feet,” testifies CNN Turk journalist Buse Deviren. “We were in the tent camp and everything was shaking incredibly. People were still making food on their fires. Kids were very scared.” According to witnesses, buildings in Antakya, the capital of Turkey’s Hatay province, were damaged by the quake. The epicenter, according to the Turkish disaster relief agency Afad, was in Defne, near the city of Antakya. The quake occurred at 8:04 p.m. local time, 6:04 p.m. with us, at a depth of ten kilometers. According to television channel CNN Türk, power has gone out in Hatay and people have taken to the streets in panic.
According to Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, at least three people were killed in the quake and at least 213 were injured as buildings that were already heavily damaged by previous quakes collapsed further. According to the governor of Turkey’s Hatay province, several people are under the rubble. The tremors were observed in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon.
Geologist Marc De Batist (UGent): “Actually, this is not so exceptional. After quakes as strong as the one two weeks ago, you can expect a series of aftershocks. If it shook somewhere, everything in the vicinity should settle down. Sometimes those aftershocks happen on the same fault, sometimes on nearby faults as is the case now. There are some medium-sized cities in the vicinity of this new quake, so we fear that the death toll will rise. In that region, buildings have already suffered damage, so that everything is less stable. The US Geological Survey gives code red, although this quake is less severe than the one two weeks ago (then a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, ed.). The fear that more quakes will follow is well founded. The new quake is closer to the coast, making the tremors stronger in the softer subsoil.”
More than 6,000 aftershocks have been registered since the heavy earthquakes two weeks ago, according to the Turkish disaster relief agency Afad.
The series of heavy earthquakes two weeks ago already killed more than 47,000, of which more than 41,000 in Turkey alone. That balance continues to increase every day. Hatay province was already one of the hardest hit provinces at the time.
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