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Two earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 struck southern Turkey and western Syria on February 6, 2023, wreaking catastrophic disaster in both countries.
According to the latest data from NASA's Earth Observatory satellite, the quake originated from a fault located 18 km below the surface, which caused strong and violent shaking that affected areas up to hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter.
A second quake followed nine hours later, hitting as deep as 10 kilometers, approximately 4 kilometers south-southeast of the city of Ekinözü in Turkey. Hundreds of smaller aftershocks occurred in the following days.
Preliminary damage proxy map showing parts of the Turkish cities of Islahiye, Kahramanmaras and Nurdagi. Dark red pixels represent areas likely to experience significant damage to buildings, homes and infrastructure or changes to the landscape, while orange and yellow areas are moderately or partially damaged.
Each pixel measures about 30 meters. The most accurate damage estimates for urban areas and perhaps less accurate are for mountainous areas and vegetation.
"This was a very large and strong earthquake that broke up to the surface through a long series of fault segments," said Eric Fielding, a geophysicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"This resulted in very strong shaking over a very large area that hit many cities and towns full of people. The length of the cracks and the magnitude of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake was similar to the 1906 earthquake that destroyed San Francisco," he said.
He added that scientists from space agencies around the world, including NASA, immediately collected and analyzed satellite data related to the incident.
Satellite photos of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria can be seen on the NASA website.
