The Turkish Earthquake is Still Occuring, Aftershocks Have Occurred Dozens of Times

Rescue team took a girl from a collapsed building after the earthquake in Diyarbakir, Turkey, Monday (6/2/2023). (Between)

JAKARTA - Aftershocks continue to shake Turkey after the central and southeastern parts of the country, as well as northern Syria were hit by the quake. The Turkish earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 caused thousands of lives to be lost.

Based on the website records of the United States Weather and Geophysics Agency (USGS), until 13.51 local time or 17.51 ​​p.m. Western Indonesian Time (WIB), around 34 aftershocks with a large magnitude above Magnitude 4 shook the southeastern region of the country that touches the two continents.

Aftershocks as reported by Antara, had quite a large magnitude, had a scale between the lowest magnitude of 4.2 to the highest magnitude of 7.5.

Thousands Killed

For comparison, the Cianjur earthquake that hit Cianjur in West Java on November 21, 2022 had a magnitude of 5.6 and killed around 630 people.

Now, based on updated victim data from foreign media including The Times, Sky News, AP and BBC, the death toll from the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria has reached around 1.000 people.

The website of Turkey's leading daily, Hurriyet, said the worst hit areas with heavy casualties were Pazarcık, Elbistan and Turoglu which were all in Kahramanmaras Province which is just north of Gaziantep Province which borders Syria.

According to preliminary data from the Kahramanmaras governor's office, around 300 buildings collapsed in the provincial capital, also called Kahramanmaras.

Turkish Vice President Fuat Okay, Hurriyet also reported that a total of 1.710 buildings collapsed in 10 provinces in Turkey.

The Turkish disaster management agency (AFAD) said that the powerful earthquake was 7 km below the surface of Pazarcık district in Kahramanmaras, at 4:17 am local time.

Pazarcık was even shaken by 66 aftershocks shortly after the main earthquake and the magnitude was above 5 Magnitude.

AFAD said the provinces affected by the Turkish earthquake were Gaziantep, Sanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Adana, Adıyaman, Malatya, Osmaniye, Hatay and Kilis, as well as Syria and Lebanon.