The high number of victims of the eastern Mediterranean earthquake… Devastation and thousands of afflicted

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay announced that the death toll from the earthquake that struck Kahramanmaraş has risen to 2,379 dead and 14,483 injured.

The Turkish official indicated that there are 52,000 afflicted people who have been distributed to shelters.

And according to the “Anatolia” agency quoted Oktay, 102 mobile broadcasting stations for mobile phones have been sent and operated to the earthquake-affected areas.

Oktay stated that the earthquake affected large areas in Turkey and abroad, indicating that the specialized teams began search and rescue work from the first moments.

In addition to the human losses, more than a thousand buildings have completely collapsed, according to Aktay.

In a precautionary measure, gas was cut off from the region due to aftershocks and fear of an explosion, and 3 airports in the region were closed, which are Hatay, Kahramanmaraş and Gaziantep.

For its part, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said that the 7.8-magnitude quake is the deadliest earthquake in the country since an earthquake of similar strength in 1999 devastated the densely populated eastern Marmara Sea region near Istanbul, killing more than 17,000 people.

According to the German Center for Geosciences Research, the earthquake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers near the city of Kahramanmaraş, and caused a rift that extends for more than 100 kilometers between the Anatolian and Arabian plates.

In Syria, the Ministry of Health announced that the death toll from the earthquake had risen to 711, and 1,431 injuries in Latakia, Aleppo, Hama and Tartous, in an indefinite toll, according to the Syrian News Agency, SANA.

Sources stated that the total number of earthquake victims across Syria reached 1,440.

On Monday, Syria appealed to the international community to “extend a helping hand” to support it after the devastating earthquake that struck the country.

The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement: “Syria appeals to the member states of the United Nations, the General Secretariat of the organization, its agencies and specialized funds, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other humanitarian action partners from international, governmental and non-governmental organizations, to extend a helping hand and support the efforts made by the Syrian government in facing a disaster.” devastating earthquake.”

Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad, during a meeting he held on Monday with representatives of international organizations operating in Damascus, expressed his country’s readiness to “provide all required facilities to international organizations in order to provide humanitarian assistance and the necessary needs.”

The widening of the affected areas and the difficult climatic conditions impede the work of rescue and ambulance personnel in Syria.

devastating earthquake

• The epicenter was at a depth of about 18 km at the East Anatolia Fault.
• The earthquake sent waves to the northeast, causing devastation in central Turkey and Syria.
• During the 20th century, the East Anatolian Fault did not cause significant seismic activity.
• The region has only had three magnitude-6 earthquakes since 1970, according to the US Geological Survey.
  But in 1822, the region was hit by a magnitude 7 earthquake, killing about 20,000 people.
• Earthquakes of magnitude greater than seven have averaged fewer than 20 throughout history, making today’s earthquake a serious event.
• Compared to the 6.2-magnitude earthquake that struck central Italy in 2016, which killed nearly 300 people, the energy released by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria is 250 times greater than that of Italy, according to Joanna Faure Walker, chair of the University College London for Risk and Disaster Reduction.
• Only two of the deadliest earthquakes of the same magnitude were recorded in the Eastern Mediterranean from 2013 to 2022.
• The East Anatolian Fault is a seismic line that is a break in rocks that leads to seismic slides whereby solid rock slabs jostle along the vertical fault line, increasing pressures until one of them finally slips in a movement that releases a huge amount of energy that can cause in an earthquake.
• The Turkish-Syrian earthquake began at a relatively shallow depth, and according to David Rothery, a planetary geologist at the Open University in Britain, “the vibration on the surface of the earth may have been more severe than the impact of an earthquake on a deeper level with the same strength at the source.”