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Volume 18 Issue 5
November 2, 2011
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HANNA PETERSEN
NEWS EDITOR

A massive earthquake hit eastern
Van province in Turkey, close to the
Iranian border at 1:41 local time on
Sunday, October 23. Turkey’s Na-
tional Earthquake Monitoring Centre
reported the quake’s magnitude as
6.6, however, the United States Geo-
logical Survey measured it at 7.2. An
earthquake of that magnitude is said
to be major and only around 15 that
powerful occur annually. The quake
was also felt in Iran and Armenia.
There were also more than 100 after-

shocks reported later on Sunday, one
being a magnitude of 6.0 occurring
just south of Van province.

The death toll has reached nearly
300 as rescuers search through the
rubble of collapsed buildings to find
survivors. It has been reported that
80 buildings had collapsed in the city
of Ercis. As rescue work gets under-
way the death toll is expected to rise.
Turkey’s Interior Minister, Idris Naim
Sahin, says that although the death
toll is increasing, “the figures are not

likely to be scary numbers.” Ecris is a
city of 75,000 close to the Iranian bor-
der. The larger city of Van, 90 kilo-
metres south, also sustained exten-
sive damage. It is also estimated that
nearly all of the mud-brick homes in
surrounding villages have collapsed
due to the force of the quake.

This area of Turkey is actually one
of the most seismically active areas in
the world. This is because Turkey is
on its own plate called the Anatolian
plate. Thus it grinds against the Eru-

asian plate to the north as well as the
Arabian plate to the south. However,
Sunday’s earthquake is nevertheless
a major disaster as most earthquakes
in the region are not as powerful and
occur in less populated regions.

More than a thousand rescue teams
from 38 provinces were being sent to
the region. Rescue teams used diggers
and cranes to remove bigger pieces
of debris before searching through
the wreckage manually in hopes of
finding survivors. “It is a very ur-

ONLINE SOURCE/TRAVIS HOLMES

gent situation,” says Hakki Erskoy,
disaster manager for the Turkish Red
Crecent. “Right now we are facing a
race against time to provide shelter
for people.”

The Red Crescent has set up re-
lief camps in Ercis, and is distributing
tents to those who prefer to remain
near their homes. It is also trying to
provide supplies such as blankets and
sleeping bags.