The Science Behind the Massive Turkey-Syria Earthquakes | WSJ

I am from Greece. Despite the confrontations between the two countries, the people here have really been very moved by the drama of their neighbors. The overwhelming majority of my compatriots stand in solidarity with the pain of fellow human beings. There is a tremendous wave of solidarity, everywhere goods are being collected to be sent to the affected. Public and private organizations are gathering as much help as they can. As a human being, I feel that the power of love prevails over the power of hatred and this is a good sign in a world that is becoming more and more cruel. I have no illusions about the future, but at least today, hepimiz türküz

I am from Turkey. Everybody knows that there will be some major earthquakes. The problem is people ignored this fact in favor of short term economic gains. Contractors built low quality houses over the fault line, officials ignored this reality and allowed them to build in order to provide cheap housing for people, some storeowners cut pillars of the building in order to create more space etc. A famous saying in my country: House kills not earthquake.

I live in California, and those plates sound way more complicated than the San Andreas. I feel so sad for the victims and the families involved. My heart goes out to all concerned.

Much love and prayers to our Turkish neighbor. Love from Greece

My heart is breaking 22,000 people I just can’t even fathom the amount of pain and shock the survivors are in, my deepest condolences and prayers out to the ones that lost their lives and the ones in mourning and just trying to rebuild their life, just so heartbreaking. Stay strong turkey and Syria I hope they get all the help they can get these coming days.

My heart goes out to the people of Turkey and Syria. Such an incredibly devastating tragedy. It is heartbreaking to think of all the loss and those who are still missing their loved ones.

As a Turkish who doesn’t live in Turkiye even me I just CANT focus on anything I m constantly crying all the time at school ,at home, in the subway. We have lost 31.000… people and I even didn’t count animals… I can’t imagine how hurtful this situation for them ..😢 and I wanna thank to all countries who helped/helping us even the countries that didn’t like Turkiye are helping us from the beginning they put immense effort to save people and that made me realize we can actually live in peace. I WISH THE PEACE for the world and the best for my TURKIYE ❤️ Umarim hep birlikte bu insanlarin yaralarini sarariz.

Praying for Turkey and Syria

My country, Chile, is home to one of the world's most active fault lines. And in this fault line in 1960, we lost over 6,000 people in a tragic earthquake, the strongest in the history. Valdivia was of only no more than 73,000 people at the time, and Chile was not prosperous, so it was disastrous for us to lose 6,000 lives. This tragedy forced us to update our building codes and while we knew we can't save all people, we can limit the damages at minimum. In 2010, when a new earthquake hit us, we suffered only nearly 500 casualties. Turkey has the same problem and the population of Kahramanmaras in 2023 is about 1,2 million, which is higher than Valdivia. Why doesn't Turkish government try to solve this problem? Is this because of corruption like what happened in 1960 Chile? So disheartening to hear.

My deepest condolences to you all in Turkey and Syria from Croatia!

Lots of Love and Prayers from India..Indians and India are with Turkey. This bad time shall pass and Turkey will thrive again!!!

crazy how they literally live at the top of the fault lines but their building materials are obviously substandard especially for an active fault line..

Be strong Turkey and Syria! I wish many people to be survived!

I just wanted to thank all the support and search-resque teams came to aid of Turkey around the world. I am from Turkey, and I was far away from the epicenter but I still felt the shocks. Conflicts happen between governments but people stand as one. Turks will always remember.

Yaşadığımız en büyük trajedi bu depremdi. 1999 Gölcük depremi bile bu derece yıkıcı olmamıştı. Malesef kaybımız büyük uzun yıllar psikolojik olarak bu yara zihinlerde kalıcı olacak. Yardımda bulunan iyiliğe, dünya barışına katkıda bulunan herkese Türk halkı olarak teşekkür ederiz.

I live in Syria. The whole thing still feels like a dream. A bad one. It's unfortunate to think of the amount of houses that have been already damaged due to bombings during the 12-years-old war. I'm still quite unable to comprehend the destructiveness of the disaster, I still can't sleep at night, I feel like a stranger in my own house, survival guilt is truly suffocating. Life's too short.

I've read in an article that over 6000 buildings have been destroyed as well as other constructions, there has to be something wrong with the way they are constructed, 7.8 magnitude is not small afterall. Moreover, the death toll is extremely high because the people were sleeping, although majority of them were alert they maybe did not evacuate because of the cold weather, the overall situation is very concerning about how nature can be! You can never know when the earthquakes might happen! My deepest condolences to the affected people, may God give them a safe place in heaven

If your country lies on a techtonic plate surely you should have some of the most stringent building codes and standards of any country, otherwise your bulding are gonna fold like a house of cards.

My heart goes out to people in Turykey and Syria. This tragedy is extremely distressing and heart-wrenching. I hope that they receive full support globally and are able to rebuild their lives.

The people who helped us all around the world, especially our neighbor Greece, you guys saved our families, our pets, our lives, we appreciate you. This is my promise, any disaster happens in your countries, I'll be there with my whole family members. Thank you!