Earthquake in turkey

Northeastern Afghanistan, where the Hindu Kush ranges are located, is an earthquake-prone area, which routinely experiences quakes of magnitude more than 6. Four of these were recorded in just the last one year. Depending on how deep below the Earth’s surface they originate, the shocks from some of these are felt in northern parts of India as well.

Tuesday night’s earthquake originated 187 km below the surface, according to USGS. The Hindu Kush region usually experiences deep earthquakes, originating at a depth of 100 km or below. Deep earthquakes, if sufficiently strong, are felt over large geographical areas, because in travelling radially upwards to the earth’s surface, they spread over great distances. The terrain in Afghanistan extending into northern India has lots of solid rocks which are conducive to wave propagation.

However, precisely because they have to traverse long distances, deep earthquakes are also generally weaker, losing a substantial part of their energy during the travel. So even though the tremors continued for 15-20 seconds in Delhi and adjoining areas, they are unlikely to have caused much damage.

In fact, this is not the first time that northern India has been shaken prominently by earthquakes in Afghanistan. In 2015, about six months after the powerful Nepal earthquake, a 7.5-magnitude quake in roughly the same area in Afghanistan had rattled most of north India. It was a similar story in January 2018 as well. In all these instances, the earthquakes had originated more than 150 km below the surface.

In contrast, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake in southern Tajikistan, a couple of hundred km north from the location of Tuesday’s quake, last month was not felt anywhere in India because it was very shallow, originating just 11 km below the surface.

The Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan experiences unique tectonic forces and is a site of frequent earthquakes. On one side it feels the forces of the Indian tectonic plate getting under the Himalayas, a phenomenon that is occurring throughout the Himalayan ranges. From the other side, the Eurasian plate is subducting into the Pamir mountain ranges. In addition, there are local faultlines as well.

Deep earthquakes also are more unlikely to be followed by aftershocks. No aftershocks were reported from Afghanistan on Tuesday. In contrast, the 7.8 earthquake in Turkey last month was followed by nearly a hundred big and small aftershocks.

Thousands of people are reported dead in Turkey and Syria following two earthquakes that rocked the region on Monday.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck shortly after 4 am was one of the strongest to hit Turkey over the last hundred years, leading to scores of buildings and homes being flattened into rubble. Later in the afternoon, a 7.5-magnitude shaker hit the southeastern part of the country.

More than 2,300 people reportedly died after the quakes rocked the region, sending tremors as far away as Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Egypt.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) noted the affected population resides in structures that are extremely vulnerable to earthquake shaking. The report said that “high casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread.”

According to the USGS’s early estimates , there is a 47% chance of that the earthquake will have killed between 1,000 to 10,000 people and a 20% chance of that the earthquake could have killed between 10,000 and 100,000.

One of the most stunning scenes filmed in the aftermath was a fire that reportedly broke out at a gas line.

Merkez üssü Kahramanmaraş’ın Pazarcık ilçesi olan 7.4 büyüklüğünde deprem sonrası yangın çıktı https://t.co/nXOxjTD6Uo pic.twitter.com/3VqsgGyrZX

— Sözcü (@gazetesozcu) February 6, 2023

The City of İskenderun in Southern Turkey has suffered some of the most Severe Damage caused by the Earthquake, there are reports that Fire and Rescue Crews are unable to get to many parts of the City with 100s if not 1000s of people expected to still be under collapsed buildings pic.twitter.com/kMV2hgEBXZ

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) February 6, 2023

In #Sanliurfa the moment a building collapsed recorded by mobile phone hours after 7.8 #earthquake hits Turkey. #deprem pic.twitter.com/YDc8DH9lbn

— JournoTurk (@journoturk) February 6, 2023

Horrifying footages emerge from towns around #Gaziantep , #Turkey . Lights in the sky and power outages. pic.twitter.com/kgkpyTX6Jy

— Barzan Sadiq (@BarzanSadiq) February 6, 2023

WATCH: Daylight reveals massive destruction in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey pic.twitter.com/YZD1J4iYfc

— BNO News Live (@BNODesk) February 6, 2023

The Biden administration responded to the situation by saying that it would provide support to the region.

“The United States is profoundly concerned by the reports of today’s destructive earthquake in Turkiye and Syria,” said national security adviser Jake Sullivan. “We stand ready to provide any and all needed assistance. President Biden has directed USAID and other federal government partners to assess U.S. response options to help those most affected. We will continue to closely monitor the situation in coordination with the Government of Turkiye.”

Editor’s note: this article has been expanded with updated information.

A new ocean could form in the distant future after a split continues to form in Africa, according to researchers.

“This is the only place on Earth where you can study how a continental rift becomes an oceanic rift,” Christopher Moore, a doctoral student at the University of Leeds, told The Economic Times.

“We can see that oceanic crust is starting to form because it’s distinctly different from continental crust in its composition and density,” Moore said.

The split formed in the desert of Ethiopia, creating the possibility that countries such as Kenya and Uganda could develop a coastline as a new ocean forms in the crevice.

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The 35-mile-long split, known as the East African Rift, formed in 2005, but any development into a new ocean will take around five to 10 million years, researchers said.

“The Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea will flood in over the Afar region and into the East African Rift Valley and become a new ocean , and that part of East Africa will become its own separate small continent,” Ken Macdonald, a marine geophysicist and a professor emeritus at the University of California, told Mashable.

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“As we get more and more measurements for GPS, we can get a much greater sense of what’s going on.”

The cause of the split remains unknown, but some believe the formation of the rift was driven by tectonic processes similar to those occurring at the bottom of the ocean, according to the Times.

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The rift sits at the border of three tectonic plates that have been drifting apart for some time. The plates – identified as the Somalian tectonic plate, the Nubian tectonic plate and the Arabian tectonic plate – drift farther apart by a few millimeters per year, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Cynthia Ebinger, a geophysicist at Tulane University in New Orleans, noted that the split has developed in an area with some of the highest temperatures on the planet.

“The hottest inhabited town on the Earth’s surface is in the Afar,” Ebinger told NBC News. “Daytime temperatures often go to 130 degrees Fahrenheit and they cool off to a balmy 95 degrees at night.”

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She described how the split initially formed, taking just a few days to do what normally takes “several hundred years” of tectonic plate movement.

“We’re trying to understand the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” she said, speculating that the build-up of pressure from rising magma could trigger the explosive events so far seen in the region.