Temblors in Türkiye among 'world's largest' continental quakes, says seismologist

By Tugba Altun

ANKARA (AA) – Earthquakes in Türkiye earlier this week rank among the world's largest continental quakes ever recorded, according to a Canadian seismologist.

Speaking to Anadolu, Edwin Nissen, a professor of seismology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, said last Monday’s temblors in Türkiye are among the top five or 10 continental quakes ever recorded.

"What makes it so damaging is the combination of its magnitude and its location and a densely populated part of Türkiye and obviously bordering with a densely populated part of Syria," he explained.

Saying that actually the largest earthquakes normally occur in the oceans, Nissen underlined however that the quakes were less powerful than continental earthquakes.

He added that Monday’s quakes were the deadliest in the republic’s history, along with one in Erzincan, eastern Türkiye, in 1939 that left over 30,000 dead. The death toll from Monday’s quakes is over 29,600 and still climbing.

He added that the timing of the quakes was "particularly bad,” as the first one struck in the middle of the night, when most people were at home, and the cold winter conditions of this time of year are bad for people displaced by the quakes.

"So that’s another fact that why it will have such a big death toll and injured toll," said Nissen.

In Türkiye, over 29,600 people were killed and over 80,000 others wounded after magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes struck 10 southern provinces on Feb. 6, affecting around 13 million people, according to the latest official figures.

Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the strong tremors.

In Syria, at least 3,500 people were killed and thousands of others injured in the northern provinces of Idlib, Latakia, Aleppo, Hama, and Raqqa, according to regime sources and rescue officials in opposition-held areas.