Context:

Three earthquakes measuring — 7.8, 7.6, and 6.0 — magnitude on the Richter scale have devastated Turkey and Syria.

Impact Caused by Earthquake:

• The historic 2,200-year-old stone castle sitting atop a hill in the centre of Gaziantep – its most famous landmark which was used as an observation point during Roman times – has been damaged, with its walls and watch towers disintegrated.
•  One of the most prominent sites in Maltaya, the famous Yeni Mosque which dates back to the 13 th century, had collapsed. 

What makes Turkey a hotbed of seismic activity? 

• Turkey’s proneness to earthquakes comes from its tectonic location. 
• The boundaries between these plates are a system of faults – fractures between two blocks of rocks. Any sudden movement along these faults can cause earthquakes. 
• Turkey is located on the Anatolian tectonic plate, which is wedged between the Eurasian and African plates. 
• On the north side, the minor Arabian plate further restricts movement.
  • One fault line — the North Anatolian fault (NAF) line, the meeting point of the Eurasian and Anatolian tectonic plates — is known to be “particularly devastating”. 
• Then there is the East Anatolian fault line, the tectonic boundary between the Anatolian Plate and the northward-moving Arabian Plate. 
• In addition to this, the Aegean Sea Plate, located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea under southern Greece and western Turkey, is also a source of seismic activity in the region. 
• According to one estimate, almost 95% of the country’s land mass is prone to earthquakes, while about a third of the country is at high risk, including the areas around the major cities of Istanbul and Izmir and the region of East Anatolia.  

                                                                                             News Source: The Hindu