An earthquake in Turkey and Syria hit last February and killed 50 thousand people. While IU is miles away from the earthquakes, students here are still impacted and doing everything they can to help those affected.
Filiz Akyuz is a PH.D. student studying higher education and student affairs at the School of Education. She grew up in Turkey and spent most of her life in Istanbul.
Filiz Akyuz discuss how being far away from Turkey has affected her since the earthquakes hit.
Akyuz was shocked to see the magnitude of this earthquake as earthquakes with lower magnitudes are common in Turkey. The last major earthquake Turkey had was in 1999, and had a magnitude of 7.4.
The areas that were affected were in the south region of Turkey, and affected areas in Syria. The first earthquake that hit was near Gaziantep and had a magnitude of 7.8. Following the initial earthquake, there was an aftershock that had a magnitude of 7.5. It would be unlikely for an earthquake of this size to happen again soon, but aftershocks are not uncommon and there could be months of them.
Dr. Michael Hamburger discuss how the location of Turkey affected how strong the earthquake was and how likely can an earthquake happen again.
According to the BBC, there are at least 1,400 people that are still missing. The cost for Turkey to repair the damages is around 34 billion dollars, while the damages for Syria is around 5.1 billion dollars.
Some areas that were affected had a long source of history. A 2,000 year old castle was damaged, and the Yeni Camii, a Mosque, was damaged as well.
Turkey sits on the East Anatolian Fault zone, and there was an expectation for an earthquake like this to happen. Since Turkey sits on a fault zone, experts could tell when the forces on the earth were starting to come together. Dr. Michael Hamburger is an IU researcher in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Some of his research includes earthquakes. According to Hamburger, experts cannot say for certain that an earthquake will actually take place, seismologists can only predict that there is movement in the earth. Experts cannot predict when it will happen, the time, or the exact location.
IU has its own seismograph station that has been open since the 1960’s. After an earthquake, the station can pick up on it and upload it to a database. The database can show data from earthquakes that are near Indiana and far away. The station is currently in the IU Geology Building.
Once the ground begins to shake, the advanced notice someone could give is from a few seconds to 20 seconds, making it very hard to give someone time to take precautions. Even though earthquakes are unpredictable, there are things the government can do to prepare. According to Hamburger, buildings can be built to withstand earthquakes. Buildings made of steel and reinforced concrete are more likely to be stronger.
Turkey does have building laws that have been implemented from other places that have earthquakes, such as California and Japan. The laws prevent buildings from collapsing from strong magnitudes. According to Hamburger, there is a concern that when the buildings in the earthquake zone were being built, the contractors did not follow the codes as closely as they should have.
The earthquake has not only affected people physically, but also mentally. Many organizations, such as the Red Cross, have made efforts to try and help those who have been affected. The organization has given out food, water, mental health care, and other products to help. They have also tried to provide shelters for those who have lost their homes.
