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Mapping the Damage From the Earthquake in Turkey and SyriaSkip to Comments
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Mapping the Damage From the Earthquake in Turkey and Syria

One of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in Turkey struck on Monday, killing thousands of people and devastating a densely populated region of southern Turkey and northern Syria.

Quakes and aftershocks

Cities with reports of damage

Hundreds of buildings

collapsed in Malatya,

including a historic mosque

and a major hotel.

50 miles

7.5-magnitude

aftershock

A shopping mall collapsed in Diyarbakir,

nearly 200 miles from the epicenter.

Kahramanmaras

TURKEY

7.8-magnitude

earthquake

Pazarcik

Nurdagi

High-rises in Adana

were reduced to rubble.

Osmaniye

Near the epicenter, Gaziantep

saw widespread destruction,

including a 2,000-year-old castle.

Sanliurfa

A hospital in Iskenderun

was destroyed with patients

and doctors inside.

Jarabulus

Azaz

Afrin

Hatay Airport

Jandaris

TURKEY

Syria’s north was already fragile

from years of civil war. Residents of

Aleppo were told to stand in the cold

after buildings collapsed in aftershocks.

Antakya

Al-Dana

Area of

detail

SYRIA

MEDITERRANEAN

SEA

Even in small towns like Sarmada,

buildings were reduced to rubble.

Atareb

SYRIA

Zardana

Armanaz

Azmarin

Shalakh

Idlib

Hundreds of buildings collapsed

in Malatya, including a historic

mosque and a major hotel.

50 miles

7.5-magnitude

aftershock

A shopping mall collapsed in

Diyarbakir, nearly 200 miles

from the epicenter.

Kahramanmaras

Pazarcik

High-rises in

Adana were

reduced to rubble.

TURKEY

Nurdagi

Osmaniye

Near the epicenter, Gaziantep

saw widespread destruction,

including a 2,000-year-old castle.

Sanliurfa

7.8-magnitude

earthquake

A hospital in Iskenderun

was destroyed with patients

and doctors inside.

Jarabulus

Azaz

Afrin

Hatay Airport

Jandaris

TURKEY

Antakya

Syria’s north was already fragile

from years of civil war. Residents of

Aleppo were told to stand in the cold

after buildings collapsed in aftershocks.

Harim

SYRIA

Al-Dana

Area of

detail

Atareb

MED. SEA

SYRIA

Azmarin

Shalakh

Idlib

50 miles

TURKEY

Area of

detail

N

SYRIA

A shopping mall collapsed in Diyarbakir,

nearly 200 miles from the epicenter.

TURKEY

Hundreds of buildings

collapsed in Malatya,

including a historic mosque

and a major hotel.

Sanliurfa

7.5-magnitude

aftershock

Pazarcik

Jarabulus

Near the epicenter, Gaziantep

saw widespread destruction,

including a 2,000-year-old castle.

Kahramanmaras

7.8-magnitude

earthquake

SYRIA

Nurdagi

Syria’s north was already fragile

from years of civil war. Residents of

Aleppo were told to stand in the cold

after buildings collapsed in aftershocks.

Osmaniye

Jandaris

Al-Dana

A hospital in Iskenderun

was destroyed with patients

and doctors inside.

Atareb

Sarmada

Shalakh

Harim

Hatay

Airport

Armanaz

Azmarin

Antakya

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

50 miles

TURKEY

Area of

detail

N

SYRIA

TURKEY

A shopping mall collapsed in

Diyarbakir, nearly 200 miles

from the epicenter.

Hundreds of buildings

collapsed in Malatya,

including a historic mosque

and a major hotel.

Sanliurfa

7.5-magnitude

aftershock

Near the epicenter, Gaziantep

saw widespread destruction,

including a 2,000-year-old castle.

Pazarcik

Jarabulus

Kahramanmaras

7.8-magnitude

earthquake

SYRIA

Nurdagi

Azaz

Afrin

Osmaniye

Jandaris

A hospital in Iskenderun

was destroyed with patients

and doctors inside.

Azmarin

Syria’s north was already fragile

from years of civil war. Residents of

Aleppo were told to stand in the cold

after buildings collapsed in aftershocks.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Sources: U.S. Geological Survey (Earthquakes), WorldPop (Population Density) Note: Showing aftershocks between 4:17 a.m., Feb. 6 and 2:30 a.m., Feb. 7 local time. Circles are sized based on magnitude.

The area was particularly vulnerable to a major earthquake. Older buildings with concrete frames are common, and thousands were destroyed. Infrastructure in northern Syria was already fragile after years of airstrikes and bombardments during the country’s civil war.

Just nine hours later after the initial quake, an unusually strong magnitude 7.5 aftershock hit along the same fault line, about 60 miles north of the first, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

A major quake, and a surprising aftershock

Shake intensity

Severe

Moderate

Initial quake, 4:17 a.m.

Large aftershock, 1:24 p.m.

Black Sea

Black Sea

Ankara

Ankara

TURKEY

TURKEY

Epicenter

Epicenter

Gaziantep

Gaziantep

CYPRUS

CYPRUS

SYRIA

SYRIA

Beirut

Beirut

LEBANON

LEBANON

Damascus

Damascus

IRAQ

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

IRAQ

JORDAN

JORDAN

ISRAEL

ISRAEL

200 miles

200 miles

Initial quake, 4:17 a.m.

Large aftershock, 1:24 p.m.

Black Sea

Black Sea

Ankara

Ankara

TURKEY

TURKEY

Epicenter

Epicenter

Gaziantep

Gaziantep

CYPRUS

CYPRUS

SYRIA

Beirut

Beirut

SYRIA

LEBANON

LEBANON

Damascus

Damascus

IRAQ

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

IRAQ

JORDAN

JORDAN

ISRAEL

ISRAEL

200 miles

200 miles

Initial quake, 4:17 a.m.

Black Sea

Ankara

TURKEY

Epicenter

Gaziantep

CYPRUS

Beirut

SYRIA

LEBANON

Damascus

Tel Aviv

IRAQ

JORDAN

ISRAEL

200 miles

Large aftershock, 1:24 p.m.

Black Sea

Ankara

TURKEY

Epicenter

Gaziantep

CYPRUS

SYRIA

Beirut

LEBANON

Damascus

Tel Aviv

IRAQ

JORDAN

ISRAEL

200 miles

Source: U.S. Geological Survey Note: All times are local.

While the full extent of the damage remains unknown, collapsed apartments, hotels and other buildings were seen in dozens of cities near the epicenter on both sides of the border.

Here’s what the damage looked like in the region’s biggest cities:

Destruction in Turkey

Shake intensity of first quake

Severe

Moderate

Ankara

TURKEY

Malatya

Diyarbakir

Kahramanmaras

Antalya

Adiyaman

Adana

Batman

Sanliurfa

Iskenderun

Epicenter of first quake

Istanbul

Ankara

TURKEY

Malatya

Diyarbakir

Kahramanmaras

Antalya

Adana

Adiyaman

Batman

Sanliurfa

Iskenderun

Epicenter of first quake

Istanbul

Ankara

TURKEY

Malatya

Diyarbakir

Adiyaman

Kahramanmaras

Antalya

Batman

Adana

Sanliurfa

Iskenderun

Epicenter of first quake

More than 5,600 buildings were destroyed across Turkey alone after the initial quake, officials in the country said. A senior U.N. official warned that the death toll may increase substantially, which is common after major earthquakes.

Malatya, Turkey

Ihlas News Agency (Iha)/Reuters

The governor of Malatya, a province near the epicenter, said that hundreds of buildings had collapsed. In the provincial capital, home to half a million people, images showed snow falling on the debris, adding to the difficulty of rescue.

Before and after photos show how the quake gutted the historic Yeni Mosque and leveled a major hotel and a large apartment building.

Yeni Mosque

June 2020

Google Maps user image

Feb. 6, 2023

Volkan Kasik/Anadolu Agency, via Getty Images

Hotel Avsar

August 2022

Google Maps Street View

Feb. 6, 2023

@Yedinoktabir via Storyful

Trend Garden Residence

October 2021

Google Maps user image

Feb. 6, 2023

Depo Photos via Reuters

Gaziantep, Turkey

A castle that dates back thousands of years was severely damaged in Gaziantep, near the epicenter of the initial quake.

Gaziantep Castle

November 2022

Google Maps Street View

Feb. 6, 2023

Obtained by Reuters

Gaziantep is also home to around half a million Syrian refugees. Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees in the world, 3.6 million, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and a majority live in southern cities, including Gaziantep.

Diyarbakir, Turkey

Large residential buildings were turned into rubble in Diyarbakir, the biggest Kurdish city in the world and the unofficial capital of Turkey’s eastern Kurdish regions.

Deniz Tekin/EPA, via Shutterstock

Sanliurfa, Turkey

Videos from two different angles capture the moment a building collapsed in Sanliurfa, Turkey.

Adana, Turkey

In Adana, a city of more than two million people, multiple high-rise residential buildings were reduced to rubble.

Rescuers searched for survivors in the buildings’ rubble.

Can Erok/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images

Damage in Syria

In Syria, the earthquakes hit the country’s war-ravaged north. More than a thousand were dead and thousands more were injured, according to the Syrian Health Ministry.

Shake intensity of first quake

Severe

Moderate

Azaz

Afrin

Aleppo

Latakia

Hama

SYRIA

Tartus

Afrin

Azaz

Aleppo

Latakia

Hama

SYRIA

Tartus

Infrastructure across Syria was already in a fragile state after years of airstrikes and bombardments, leaving many buildings unable to withstand the earthquake or dozens of aftershocks. Millions of Syrians have been displaced across the parts of Syria and Turkey where the earthquakes struck.“What we have in Syria is an emergency within an emergency,” said Mark Kaye, a spokesman for the International Rescue Committee.

Aleppo, Syria

Widespread damage was documented in the city of Aleppo and throughout Aleppo province. In nearby Jarabulus, which is near the border with Turkey, videos showed a building collapse after the second quake.

Northwest of Aleppo, photos showed residents retrieving a girl from the rubble in the rural town of Jandaris.

Rami Al Sayed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The White Helmets, members of a volunteer-based civil defense group that operates in areas of Syria outside government control, have been rescuing trapped civilians in the northwestern corner of the country. They have reported hundreds of deaths in the region.