earthquake in turkey

latest death toll at 270 but could be as high as a 1000. frightening

http://abcnews.go.com/International/turkey-earthquake-hundreds-dead-rescue-workers-dig/story?id=14800060

also, this tidbit, I had no idea: The last major earthquake to hit the country was in 1999, when 18,000 people were killed, according the AP.

once again I am thankful for living in a part of the world that is largely seismically inactive.

#rumblebrag

The earthquake this time in Turkey and Syria has been deadly and devastating. 7,300 dead

Yeah, the death toll just keeps rising... I notice in a lot of the photos: there seems to be very little re-bar (steel reinforcement) in the rubble; I think some of these residential buildings just pancaked, collapsing on themselves. Really sad.

Allegedly a lot of the buildings in these cities were cheaply built crap thrown up willy nilly during some kind of economic boom in Turkey.

there hadn't been any major earthquakes there for a century despite it sitting over a major fault line

The 1999 Turkey earthquake has been cited in reports with the fact that it was responsible for 17-18k deaths, which is just insane.

Oh, mentioned in the first post too.

sorry, what? there was a 7.0 in 2020!

xp that's not surprising, if you visit israel you will notice that "cheaply built crap thrown up willy nilly" is the building style of choice in places like tel aviv and haifa. same is true of iran, which is why part of why the death toll is so high every time they have an earthquake. not sure if the same is true of the arab states, but the fault lines go around the peninsula, not through it, so they don't have to worry about it

even cheaply built crap can be retrofitted with bracing, happens all the time here in California

I heard a bbc WS report that stated there hadn't been any major earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş for a century. Just saying that is probably one reason why the buildings aren't up to standard for somewhere over a major fault line.

Friend of mine lives in Beirut and she said it was strong enough even there to send everyone fleeing their houses.

for it to happen in winter with freezing rain and snow conditions with major roads completely fucked is really bad. The delay for getting aid workers and food in there will cost many more lives.

The buildings just coming down like is being seen in videos is fucked up. Such shoddy construction. I know this wasn’t a small temblor at all but that factor is the difference maker. A 6.9 hit the Bay Area in 1989 and there were 63 deaths. A 7.0 hit Haiti in 2010 and there were maybe 200,000.

Also, a literal factor: the Richter scale is exponential, so the difference between a 6.9 and 7.0 is substantial. I believe that means Turkey's 7.9 was ten times more powerful than San Fran's 6.9.

I saw an IMAX movie years ago that focused on the North Anatolian Fault and the aftermath of the 1999 Turkish earthquake. It was pretty horrifying, and really emphasized the inadequate construction. And that was almost 25 years ago, you'd think they'd have shored things up. Maybe they did and it just wasn't enough.

The Syrian side of this is even worse in terms of getting rescue and food aid in there. Hellish winter conditions + mega earthquake in a civil war zone with infrastructure that is already completely fucked.

Strength wise I think a 7.0 is about 20% stronger or something than a 6.9 with an energy release about 40-50% more. I think the Haiti quake was initially calculated a bit lower than 7.0…I’m guessing overall that 0.1 did more damage but Haiti was fucked either way.

A 7.9 apparently is about thirty times stronger in terms of energy release than a 6.9 — knowing that the San Andreas fault is capable of an 8.2 usually has me checking real estate in Minnesota. Not the Pacific NW anymore (thanks to the New Yorker.)

ffs lads, there is probably a better thread for real estate talk

That’s more about the feeling of vulnerability living five miles from the epicenter of the last major devastating US quake than anything, not so much about finding a dream home tbh! My w1fe lived here during that ‘94 one and described it as “very fucked up”.

ah, fair enough

yeah I had friends in SF for '94 and they were thoroughly freaked

crosspost from curmudgeon in the MENA thread:

https://dcist.com/story/23/02/06/turkey-syria-earthquake-how-to-help-dc-organizations-donations

There was just a moderately bad quake up in Humboldt County (Andy's land or origin) in December and everyone I talked to said it was different - it wasn't swaying side to side but bouncing up & down vertically, a bunch of homes got knocked off their foundations

It was 6.4 - there was a 6.4 a year earlier (to the day) that didn't do nearly as much damage

https://sciencing.com/transverse-vs-longitudinal-waves-whats-the-difference-w-examples-13721565.html

last year I was 100km from the epicentre of a 5.7 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina_earthquake

the bed shook dramatically and it was really quite startling. and as I say, that's 100km from a 5.7, which is nothing compared to what you're all discussing

difficult to imagine what being caught in a major one feels like, let alone the emotional fallout from such lethal destructiveness wrought by your very soil

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-syria-earthquake-how-to-help

The government in Damascus allows aid to enter the region through only one border crossing. It has been resistant to opening up aid into northern areas because it regards the aid as undermining Syrian sovereignty and reducing its chances of winning back control of the region.“The areas worst affected by the earthquake inside Syria look to be run by the Turkish-controlled opposition and not by the Syrian government,” said Mark Lowcock, the former head of UN humanitarian affairs. “It is going to require Turkish acquiescence to get aid into those areas. It is unlikely the Syrian government will do much to help.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/07/syria-earthquake-aftermath-aid-politics

new 5.8 and 6.4 quakes this evening, same region

fucking hell