Timing and location add to severity

The magnitude-7.8 earthquake that struck Turkiye and Syria on Monday is likely to be one of the deadliest this decade, seismologists said, with a more than 100-kilometer rupture between the Anatolian and Arabian plates.

A combination of factors made the powerful earthquake that struck Turkiye and Syria early on Monday particularly deadly, including its timing, location, relatively quiet fault line and weak construction of the collapsed buildings, experts said.

The earthquake caused such devastation partly because of its power — it is the strongest earthquake to hit Turkiye since 1939 — and because it hit a populated region.

Another reason is that it occurred at 4:17 am, which meant that sleeping people were "trapped when their houses collapsed", Roger Musson, honorary research associate at the British Geological Survey, told Agence France-Presse.

Turkiye is in one of the world's most active earthquake zones. The epicenter was at a depth of about 18 km on the East Anatolian Fault.

Agencies via Xinhua