Turkey is a transcontinental Eurasian country. The major part of the country lies in the Anatolian Plateau of Western Asia while a small part is located on Southeastern Europe's Balkan Peninsula.
The country has a north-south extent that ranges from about 300 to 400 miles, and it stretches about 1,000 miles from west to east. Turkey is bounded on the north by the Black Sea, on the northeast by Georgia and Armenia, on the east by Azerbaijan and Iran, on the southeast by Iraq and Syria, on the southwest and west by the Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea, and on the northwest by Greece and Bulgaria.
The capital is Ankara, and its largest city and seaport is Istanbul. It has a population of about 84 million and the president is Recep Erdoğan.
According to calculations made by the physicist Andrew J. Woods in 1973 in San Diego, the geographical center of the earth was marked as 150 kilometers southeast of the Turkish capital Ankara. Making Turkey the Center of the earth. But does that really contribute to the recent earthquake on Monday, February 6, 2023?
The first earthquake in Turkey was very big, - it registered as 7.8, classified as "major" on the official magnitude scale. It broke along about 100km of fault line, causing serious damage to buildings near the fault, killing over 20,000 people.
Prof Joanna Walker, head of the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction at University College London, said: "Of the deadliest earthquakes in any given year, only two in the last 10 years have been of equivalent magnitude, and 4 in the previous 10 years." But it is not only the power of the tremor that causes devastation.
This incident occurred in the early hours of the morning, when people were inside and sleeping. The sturdiness of the buildings is also a factor.
Dr Carmen Solana, reader in volcanology and risk communication at the University of Portsmouth, says: "The resistant infrastructure is unfortunately patchy in South Turkey and especially Syria, so saving lives now mostly relies on response. The next 24 hours are crucial to find survivors. After 48 hours the number of survivors decreases enormously."
This was a region where there had not been a major earthquake for more than 200 years or any warning signs, so the level of preparedness would be less than for a region which was more used to dealing with tremors.
How some Earthquakes occur?
What is important to know is, the Earth's crust is made up of separate bits, called plates, that nestle alongside each other.
These plates often try to move but are prevented by the friction of rubbing up against an adjoining one. But sometimes the pressure builds until one plate suddenly jerks across, causing the surface to move.
In this case of Turkey, it was the Arabian plate moving northwards and grinding against the Anatolian plate.
Friction from the plates has been responsible for very damaging earthquakes in the past.
On 13 August, 1822 it caused an earthquake registering 7.4 in magnitude, significantly less than the 7.8 magnitude recorded on Monday in Turkey.
A lot of people are still missing in Turkey, including a Ghanaian football player, Christian Atsu who was earlier allegedly rescued but it was an issue of mistaken identity.
And sadly, Chances of survival is getting slimmer as the days go by and the search is now less of rescuing the survivors but searching for the dead.
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: Turkey, The Centre of the Earth and The Earthquake that Killed more than 20,000){kind=link}
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