The total number of victims who fell as a result of the earthquake in the eastern Mediterranean, in Turkey and Syria, exceeded 8,000 dead and 37,000 wounded. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a state of emergency in the affected areas, while the Civil Defense of the Syrian opposition warned that hundreds of families are still under the rubble. .
While the search continues for survivors in Turkey and Syria, as a result of the eastern Mediterranean earthquake, it was reported that the death toll from the earthquake in Turkey rose to 5,894.
Turkish Vice President Fuad Oktay said, on Tuesday evening, that the number of deaths from the earthquake that struck the south of the country had risen to 5,894.
Infographic.. Turkey and Syria earthquake
In a statement he made from the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Center “AFAD” in the capital, Ankara, Oktay pointed out that the number of injuries had risen to 34,810.
He said that the concerned teams opened all roads for the arrival of logistical support to the earthquake area, adding that the number of buildings destroyed by the earthquake reached 5,775, according to the Anatolia News Agency.
Oktay indicated that about 8,000 people were rescued from under the rubble.
Turkish Vice President Fuad Oktay said that 312 aftershocks followed the quake, with a magnitude of 7.7 and its center in Kahramanmaraş, southern Turkey.
The high number of victims in Syria
In Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the death toll from the earthquake in Syria rose to more than 2,500.
The Syrian News Agency said that the death toll from the earthquake in the governorates of Aleppo, Latakia and Hama rose to 812, while the Syrian opposition reported that about 790 people were killed in the areas under its control.
It was reported that the number of injured as a result of the earthquake, in various parts of Syria, has risen to 2,554, according to an indefinite toll.
Eastern Mediterranean earthquake.. Aid breaches differences
Losses in a nutshell:
- The death toll exceeds 5,894 in Turkey and 2,500 in Syria
- Bad weather is hampering search and rescue efforts
- UNICEF: The earthquake may have claimed the lives of thousands of children
- Agency: The earthquake destroyed nearly 6,000 buildings in Turkey
- The Syrian Observatory: The death toll from the earthquake in Syria has risen to more than 2,500
The eastern Mediterranean earthquake moved Turkey 3 meters to the west
On the other hand, experts said that the violent earthquakes that struck Turkey on Monday caused a massive change in the tectonic plates, on which Turkey “sits” or is located, as it pushed the country to the west by 3 meters.
Meteorologists revealed that a 225-kilometer stretch of rift between the Anatolian plate and the Arabian plate has been ruptured, as the country is located on the main fault lines that border the Anatolian plate, the Arabian plate, and the Eurasian plate.
Italian seismologist Dr. Carlo Doglioni told the Italia 24 news site that, as a result, Turkey could have slipped and moved up to 5 to 6 meters, adding that all of this depends on preliminary data, and more accurate information will be available from satellites in the coming days. coming.
Professor of Geology at the British University of Durham, Bob Holdsworth, said that the amount of plate movement may be quite logical, given the strength of the earthquake and the damage it caused.
He pointed out, in a statement to the British newspaper “Mail Online”, that there is a predictable and widely documented relationship between the strength of the earthquake and the amount of displacement of the tectonic plates that can occur.
Eastern Mediterranean earthquake… massive destruction and thousands of dead and wounded
According to Holdsworth as a general rule:
- A magnitude 6.5 to 6.9 earthquake is associated with a displacement of about 1 metre.
- The largest known earthquakes can trigger displacements of 10 to 15 metres.
