AFAD reports 38,000 aftershocks in Türkiye since February 6 quakes

Approximately 38,000 aftershocks have occurred in Türkiye since the pair of early February earthquakes struck the southeastern region of the country, professor Orhan Tatar, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority's (AFAD) general manager of earthquake response and risk reduction said recently.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) ahead of a symposium in central Sivas province, Tatar noted that the number of aftershocks measured in the period of around 3.5 months surpassed the average number of earthquakes recorded by the AFAD's earthquake department in a year, which is around 22,000, Daily Sabah reports on May 26.

Underscoring the scope of impact and devastation that occurred after Feb. 6, Tatar said, "When you look at it, we are talking about a really massive disaster that affected 11 provinces in a span of nine hours. When we look throughout history, there is no such natural disaster that has left a 500-kilometre (310-miles) surface fracture, with an impact on an area the size of approximately 20,000 square kilometres."

Stating that the number of aftershocks that touched 5.0 magnitude at times is large, Tatar opined that the particular rockfall which comes into view after the earthquakes pose a great risk.

"The death of four of our teachers as a result of a rockfall in Adana still saddens us. That is why we need to be careful in places with such rockfalls, especially in residential areas, close to residential areas. The AFAD has conducted many field studies on this subject after the earthquake. After these works, many settlements, at risk of rockfall, were evacuated. But there are still places in the countryside that may be exposed to such risks after these aftershocks," he explained.

Pointing to the success Türkiye has achieved related to recovery and rehabilitation efforts following the earthquakes, Tatar said, "In this sense, we can't be more proud of our country and our state."

However, Tatar also stated Türkiye is an "earthquake-prone country," adding that there are active fault lines that can produce earthquakes at any moment in Türkiye.

"These faultlines have the potential of generating earthquakes of magnitude 5.0-5.5 and above at any time and anywhere," he underlined.

Noting that the earthquakes have paved the way for Türkiye, the international community and researchers to gain more experience related to disaster management, Tatar said that the mutual opinion of all researchers who visited the country after Feb. 6 is that it is not an easy task to recover from this disaster in such a short span of time.

"Our country is a country with a high potential of being exposed to disasters. Not only earthquakes but also various natural phenomena such as floods, landslides, rockfalls and sinkholes ... Therefore, we have very important risk-reduction activities that we need to conduct to prevent such events from turning into disasters," he said.

Over 50,000 people were killed across 11 provinces levelled by the Feb. 6 tremors, while hundreds of thousands more were injured and millions were left homeless.