Earthquakes in Tuyrkey and Syria

[Blaze]

It's difficult to find the words to describe the catastrophe caused by the 2 huge earthquakes and the aftershocks in Turkey and Syria. Hundreds of thousands of deaths, injuries, homeless, and families and friends not knowing if their loved ones are still alive. There are also the huge problems of logistics with the difficulty in getting help to the many areas hit by disaster. Syria has the problem of internal war between the government and rebels which complicates matters and prolongs the suffering.

Whilst I'm not a fan of Erdogan, accusations by the opposition that "it's all his fault" are ridiculous and are trying to make political mileage out of the tragedy.

It would appear from what I've read on the BBC and elsewhere, that many buildings were not up to structural norms for the area, with money changing hands to get past these norms. It might explain why some buildings literally pancakes whilst others remained standing.

[exile]

There is a natural reaction after any disaster of this scale that the authorities should do more and should have started doing it much, much sooner. Sometimes deserved (hurricane Katerina); sometimes much less so - the current events in Turkey and Syria.

The reality of course is that the authorities and rescue organisations have the same issues as the victims. Infrastructure destroyed, damaged or at the least in need to inspection before use.

While working I had occasion to visit Gaziantep a couple of times. Apart from the warehouse I was inspecting, I only saw the old city and I have seen no pictures or reports yet as to how it has fared except for a comment that the citadel has been badly damaged.

[niemeyjt]

It would appear from what I've read on the BBC and elsewhere, that many buildings were not up to structural norms for the area, with money changing hands to get past these norms. It might explain why some buildings literally pancakes whilst others remained standing.

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There were some horror stories on the BBC - like bricks laid with no mortar. Once again, the plebs pay the price of others' greed - this time with their lives.

[MAD87]

All that, plus the freezing temperatures.
I agree that it's ridiculous to sling blame around and my first thought when Erdogan dismissed the claims was to agree with him that you can't anticipate a disaster of this magnitude.

[niemeyjt]

I personally think the UK needs to redirect its foreign aid budget into preparedness for the next disaster, of whatever magnitude and location - into food, tents, blankets, water purification etc on pallets ready to go at a moment's notice.

Maybe also hang onto the C-130s once retired?

[exile]

I think you will find that quite a few agencies and possibly the UK government itself do exactly that.

The issue being to identify what is required, sort it and then organise transport. Big planes are good but need big and operational airports. Flights then have to be scheduled - given that every rescue man and SARDA (search and rescue dog association) will be trying to get a landing slot at an airport that has probably lost its electricity (=radar and landing lights non-functional as well as possibly landing tower to pilot comms.) and may have restricted landing area, limited taxi ways, limited off-loading functions and no immediate warehousing as well as no ability to refuel planes on the ground. So once offloaded the supplies then need to be transported to storage or where they are immediately needed. [Storage because there may be limited distribution transport.]

[Bayleaf]

Just awful, and here's an interesting article on "How Humans are Causing Deadly Earthquakes".

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/scie ... -video-spd

Maybe not related to this tragic incident, but it does make you think ......

[Blaze]

Interesting, Bayleaf, and scary. Man's greed will stop at nothing, even at the risk at creating earthquakes.

The 2 recent earthquakes took place along or near the North Anatoly fault system in areas where there had been little human activity, but known to be at risk, with tragic consequences. There is an east-west fault in the north of Turkey (remember the earthquake there in 1999 ?) and Istanbul is conscious that should a strong earthquake occur near the city, it would be disastrous in terms of loss of life and collapse of buildings.

[exile]

Actually @Blaze neither earthquake was associated with the North Anatolian fault. Both were on the East Anatolian fault. The risk is that the North and East faults join/come into close contact near to the Georgian border. If these events do trigger earthquakes in the North fault then there is indeed a real problem since this fault has quite a history of unzipping - one earthquake leads to another (usually more to the west) which leads to another ..... with as you say leaves Istanbul towards the end of the zip. The last series in the 1990s stopped short of Istanbul which would be an absolute disaster with hundreds of thousands of unregistered inhabitants living in unauthorised buildings. History says the unzip takes 5 - 10 years and may even end up further west.


Regarding un-mortared bricks, I doubt that that applies to the buildings we are seeing in the news but you never know.

However the warehousing company I was visiting in Turkey (not Gaziantep)said that a corner of one of their sites had been annexed by a family who had built a 2 storey house. This seems to have happened over the weekend. A bit like the old UK tradition of 'If you can build a house in a day and light a fire before sunset the land is yours' perhaps. The company told me that they could complain to the mayor and insist that the building be pulled down but the residents were Kurds, as was the mayor and any requests for further development on the company's land might end up with endless questions, surveys and delays. Such properties could well have been built without mortar. There will be millions (no exaggeration) of such buildings across the country.

[Blaze]

Actually @Blaze neither earthquake was associated with the North Anatolian fault. Both were on the East Anatolian fault.

Actually I meant to write "East", but got my wires crossed !!