The initial quake measured 7.8 on the Richter scale and lasted about 5 minutes. There have been dozens of aftershocks, including some very strong magnitude 6.7 ones. “That alone is very difficult,” Govers says. “And this is a running scale, each point is a factor of 30 of the most powerful earthquake.”
According to Govers, estimates are made on the number of deaths in these types of earthquakes. “Tens of thousands of people are expected to have died or will die. The economic impact will reach into the billions.’
Live Blog | Hundreds dead in earthquake Turkey and Syria
Epicenter
The epicenter was 26 kilometers northwest of the city of Gaziantep, the consequences are being felt far beyond the city. ‘It’s actually a 300 kilometer long area where earthquakes occur, which is huge. There are cities that are not prepared for this kind of shock.’
For example, in Sanliurfa, Turkey, 150 kilometers east of the epicenter, a hospital collapsed, according to eyewitnesses. Severe damage was also reported from Adana, which is 150 kilometers west of the epicenter. The governor of the Adana region told Turkish media that no deaths had been reported yet.
Tsunami
The earthquake did not cause a tsunami in the Mediterranean Sea. A strike for this was withdrawn pretty quickly. Easy to explain, Govers says. “At this fault, the East Anatolian fault line, the rocks slide past each other and the possibility of a tsunami is minimal. This danger arises only when tectonic plates slide under each other.”