Ruptured fault line seen in Turkey shows devastation of earthquake
Topics: World News, Environment, News
Anish Vij
Featured Image Credit: Reddit/Shutterstock
Topics: World News, Environment, News
New satellite images show the scale of the devastation caused by the Turkey-Syria earthquake.
The death toll from the disaster, which occurred on 6 February, is now upwards of 25,000, while thousands more remain injured or homeless.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit southern Turkey and northern Syria was reportedly felt as far as Cairo, Egypt.
Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said 13 million of the country’s 85 million were affected in some way and declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces in order to manage the response.
Well, Maxar Technologies has now shared new satellite images of the vast fault line rupture in Nurdagi, which appears to be cutting across a motorway and farmland.
Before and after photos have been uploaded by the space tech company, which captures just how catastrophic the earthquake was.
"Near the epicenter of the #earthquakes, in the city of #Nurdagi, #Turkey, a significant fault line rupture can be seen cutting across a highway, farms and residential areas," Maxar wrote.
They compared two images from September 6, 2019 and February 7, 2023.
Maxar also shared photos of the runway of Hatay Airport in Turkey’s Hatay region, which suffered visible damage along with destroyed buildings and hospitals in Antakya.
Reconstruction of the airport appears to be underway.
Amid the horrific situation, it's the tragic images of a young Syrian girl protecting her sibling - which recently went viral on social media - that have reinforced just how awful the current circumstances are.
The girl was filmed placing her hand over her brother's head to protect him while trapped under rubble from the earthquake.
Thankfully, the siblings made it out safely as United Nations (UN) representative Mohammad Safa tweeted: "The 7-year-old girl who kept her hand on her little brother's head to protect him while they were under the rubble for 17 hours has made it safely.
"I see no one sharing. If she were dead, everyone would share! Share positivity."
For the entire quake-hit area, as much as 23 million people of the country’s 85 million will have been affected, according to Adelheid Marschang, a Senior Emergency Officer from the World Health Organisation.
“This is a crisis on top of multiple crises in the affected region,” Marschang said at the organisation’s board meeting in Geneva.
Meanwhile in northern Syria, Sebastien Gay, the head of mission in the country for Doctors Without Borders, said health facilities were overwhelmed with medical personnel working around 'around the clock to respond to the huge numbers of wounded'.
The affected area in Syria is divided between government-controlled territory and the country’s last opposition-held enclave, which is surrounded by Russian-backed government forces.
Turkey is home to millions of refugees from the Syrian civil war.