A 7.3 magnitude earthquake which struck eastern Turkey on Sunday, 23 October 2011 has killed 500 to 1,000 people, the head of a seismological institute in Istanbul said.
"Five hundred to 1,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the quake," Professor Mustafa Erdik, director of the Kandilli seismological institute in Istanbul.
The powerful quake, the strongest to hit the country in years, and its aftershocks struck Van, a large eastern city populated mainly by Kurds.
Hundreds are feared trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings and officials warned they were struggling to assess the extent of the damage.
Aftershocks rattled the region. Local officials have appealed for tents and supplies to look after those made homeless by the disaster.
Television footage showed collapsed buildings and vehicles, with residents rushing in panic in the streets. "People are panicked. The telecommunication services have collapsed. We cannot reach anybody," Van Mayor Bekir Kaya told the NTV television in an initial assessment.
The government is due to send satellite phones to the region, according to media reports. The army will send search and rescue teams to the area.
"Much more development in emergency planning and disaster management is needed in order to provide quick assistance to disaster hit regions, not only in Turkey but also internationally."
Prof. David Alexander, Chief Senior Scientist GRF Davos
Understanding the 7.2 magnitude earthquake
Turkey is a tectonically active country that experiences frequent destructive earthquakes. On a broad scale, the seismtectonics of the region near the October 23, 2011 earthquake are controlled by the collision of the Arabian Plate and Eurasian plates; at the latitude of this event, the Arabian plate converges with Eurasia in a northerly direction at a rate of approximately 24 mm/yr. West of the October 23, 2011, earthquake tectonics are dominated by strike-slip faulting on the East (in southern Turkey) and North (in northern Turkey) Anatolian fault zones. These large, translational fault systems extend across much of central and western Turkey and accommodate the western motion of the Anatolian block as it is being squeezed by the converging Arabian and Eurasian plates.
In the area of Lake Van and further east, tectonics are dominated by the Bitlis Suture Zone (in eastern Turkey) and Zagros fold and thrust belt (toward Iran). The October 23, 2011 earthquake occurred in a broad region of convergence beyond the eastern extent of Anatolian strike-slip tectonics. The focal mechanism of today’s earthquake is consistent with oblique-thrust faulting similar to mapped faults in the region.
This earthquake is a reminder of the many deadly seismic events that Turkey has suffered in the recent past. The devastating Izmit earthquake of 1999 (M = 7.6) broke a section of the North Anatolian Fault 1000 km to the west of the October 23 event and killed 17,000 people, injured 50,000, and left 500,000 homeless. Approximately 70 km from this earthquake a M7.3 earthquake occurred on November 11, 1976 destroying several villages near the Turkey and Iran border and killing several thousand people.
A M7.8 earthquake struck Erzincan in 1939, killing an estimated 33,000 people.
Earthquakes - a major threat
Earthquakes have rocked our planet several times over the years. While many quakes have gone unnoticed, some have wrecked havoc, wiping out villages, towns and destroying cities.
Earthquakes with a reading of 3 on the Richter scale are usually not harmful, but earthquakes with a reading of 7 or more are guaranteed to cause massive destruction.
According to the Time magazine, following are 10 deadliest earthquakes, which not only brought about devastation, but also cost many lives.
Further Information:
Source: Reuters, USGS, earthquake-report.com, BBC, the guardian
Pictures: Reuters
ShakeMap: USGS
