On the morning of February 6, a pair of powerful earthquakes, 7.8 and 7.6, struck Turkey and Syria. On top of that, the region was hit with strong aftershocks, which made the destruction even worse. The death toll is in the tens of thousands, with many victims still lying beneath the rubble.
Multiple factors led to this earthquake being so devastating, like fault lines, neighborhoods reeling from the ongoing war, and delayed rescue missions. But what made these earthquakes particularly catastrophic was unsafe buildings. According to the Turkish government, more than 6,000 buildings collapsed in the wake of the temblors. And that’s likely because of the way the buildings were built.
This video will explain how bad building design made the Turkey-Syria earthquakes more deadly than they had to be.
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