The deadly earthquake in Turkey, Syria

 Washington Post:

Quake’s toll passes 5,000 in Turkey, Syria

Crews scour rubble amid rising fears of a new humanitarian crisis

 Turkey’s Erdogan declares 3-month state of emergency in hard-hit regions

The death toll and the damage to structures are almost incalculable at this time.  It will probably take crews months to dig through the rubble for bodies.

See, also:

Why was the Turkey-Syria earthquake so bad?

 The magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday is likely to be one of the deadliest this decade, seismologists said, with a more than 100 km (62 miles) rupture between the Anatolian and Arabian plates.

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Only three earthquakes have registered above 6.0 on the Richter Scale since 1970 in the area, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. But in 1822, a 7.0 quake hit the region, killing an estimated 20,000 people.

On average, there are fewer than 20 quakes over 7.0 magnitude in any year, making Monday's event severe.

Compared with the 6.2 earthquake that hit central Italy in 2016 and killed some 300 people, the Turkey-Syria earthquake released 250 times as much energy, according to Joanna Faure Walker, head of the University College London Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction.
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