Magnitude 7.8 - Central Turkey
2023-02-06 01:17:35 (UTC)37.174°N 37.032°E 17.9 km depth
Seems deep. Don’t know my Earthquake science. Might be good or bad, but in this part of the world their building standards are not up to snuff. Going to be many casualties.
17 km is the same depth as the 1994 Northridge Quake.
Northridge was 6.7 Richter, this Turk quake at 7.8 is over 10 times as powerful.
I was 50 miles from both Northridge and Sylmar and they were still scary as hell. I wouldn’t want to find out what 7.8 would be like.
I remember when I was stationed at Incirlic Air Base in the 80s the USAF had spent millions on hundreds of very nice new two story housing units. Agreements with Turkey required all construction to be built by contract with Turkish companies. They were built on slab and within no time of being finished and put into use the occupants would hear something like a shotgun blast and then find a wide gaping crack a wall. I’m talking a crack sometimes inches wide and running from the foundation to the roof. It wasn’t long before nearly every home had to be home for anywhere from one or more cracks and other associated damage. If the soil in the rest of Turkey is like that in Incirlik then its no surprise that a huge quake occurred.
MAybe so, but it will be the OLDER ones that collaspe.