From theeventszone.com

A terrible earthquake shook the border region of Turkey and Syria. The tremors were so strong that they were felt as far away as Israel, Cyprus—even Greenland, more than five thousand kilometers away. The earthquake has killed more than 2,300 people in Turkey and Syria so far. Many people were injured. It is feared that the number of casualties may increase.

The earthquake struck at 4:17 am on Monday. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the magnitude of the earthquake was 7.8. Earthquakes may become stronger. However, it depends more on where the earthquake is, how deep the source is from the surface, what is the population in the affected area, and how strong is the infrastructure including houses.

Januka Attanayake, a seismologist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, said the magnitude of the earthquake's energy was about 32 petajoules. This amount of energy can meet the electricity needs of New York City, USA for more than four days

30 minutes after today's earthquake the USGS released a report on potential damage. According to the report, there is a 34 percent chance that the number of dead in the earthquake will be between 100 and 1000. There is a 31 percent chance that 1,000 to 10,000 people will die. And the economic damage to Turkey from the earthquake could be up to 1 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

Januka Attanayake, a seismologist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, talked about how powerful the earthquake was. According to him, the amount of energy produced by this earthquake is about 32 petajoules. This amount of energy can meet the electricity needs of New York City, USA for more than four days. "In terms of energy output, a magnitude 7.8 quake is 708 times stronger than a magnitude 5.9," he said, pointing to a magnitude 5.9 earthquake that could hit Melbourne in 2021.

How strong an earthquake is measured using a magnitude scale. Earlier Richter scale was used for this measurement. According to the calculation of the logarithmic magnitude scale, increasing the vibration level by one full step means that 32 times more energy is generated than in the previous step.

In 2013, the director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Renato Solidum, talked about the different levels of earthquakes in an interview with the UK newspaper The Times. According to his data, the energy produced by a magnitude 7 earthquake is about 30 times greater than the energy of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.

However, the magnitude of the earthquake does not mean that the damage will be greater. Damage depends on how densely populated the affected area is and how deep the source is from the surface. The shallower the source, the greater the damage. Today's earthquake was centered at a depth of 10 miles.

The quality of infrastructure construction in earthquake-affected areas can also reduce the extent of the damage. According to the USGS report, people's homes were very vulnerable to earthquakes along the Turkish-Syrian border. In this regard, USGS seismologist Susan Hogg wrote on Twitter, "Today's earthquake may be slightly smaller than the strongest earthquakes in the world in recent decades, but due to the location and shallow depth of the region, there is a risk of extensive damage. Origin."

Turkey described today's 7.8-magnitude earthquake as a 'major' earthquake. In 2013, an earthquake of a similar magnitude killed 825 people in Pakistan. And in 2015, the Nepal earthquake killed nearly 9,000 people. Now that the number of casualties in Turkey is increasing by leaps and bounds, it remains to be seen where the total damage figures will stand.