The disaster that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday adds to the long list of deadly earthquakes in the region. Our explanations and maps of earthquakes in Turkey and around the world.
Nearly 120 earthquakes have claimed lives in Turkey since the turn of the 20th century, according to data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA). Only a few countries, such as China and Iran, have more.
But the scale of Monday’s disaster, whose death toll exceeds 16,000 with deaths in Syria, is exceptional. It is already the third deadliest earthquake in Turkey since 1900, while the number of victims continues to be revised upwards.
The heaviest toll dates back to December 1939. A series of tremors hit the province of Erzincan, in the east of the country, causing the death of nearly 33,000 people.
Risk areas
In the rest of the world, the most devastating earthquake in recent history remains that of Port-au-Prince in 2010. More than 300,000 Haitians lost their lives in the disaster, again according to the agency. NOAA.
Haiti is however not located in the regions most frequently affected by violent earthquakes.
As our maps of deadly earthquakes below show, this type of drama is concentrated in specific places, such as western Latin America, parts of Asia or even Iran and Turkey.
Junction of three tectonic plates
What do the most affected regions have in common? They are located at the boundary between several tectonic plates. These cause seismic tremors when they rub against each other.
The location of the disaster in Turkey is no exception. “The area is at the junction of three plates: the Eurasian plate, the Arabian plate and the African plate”, explains at 7:30 p.m. from RTS Corine Frischknecht, seismologist at the University of Geneva.
According to her, it remains to be determined whether the two tremors on Monday, with magnitudes of 7.5 and 7.8, came from the same earthquake, or if two different segments cracked.
>> The complete explanations of 7:30 p.m.:
>> Monitoring of relief operations:
These next few hours are crucial to find survivors in Turkey and Syria
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