Why so many buildings collapsed in Turkey earthquake

At least 6,000 structures were brought down by the 7.8-magnitude tremor and its aftershocks, but could more have been done to stop the devastation?

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  A child being rescued from the rubble in this screengrab obtained from social media, in Bisnia in Syria. Reuters

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  A rescued boy is given water in a bottle cap in Hatay, Turkey. Reuters

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  A woman carries a box of food in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Reuters

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  'We were screaming for help until people came to help us and they took us to the hospital', said Hamid from Homs who was injured in a building collapse. Matt Kynaston / The National

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  Palestinians attend a vigil to exress solidarity with the people of Turkey and Syria in Khan Yunius in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP

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  A collapsed building in Hatay, Turkey after a major earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6. EPA

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  A Syrian man cries as he sits on the rubble of a collapsed building in the rebel-held town of Jindayris. AFP

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  A man carries a girl who was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay. EPA

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  Members of the Turkish community in Berlin gather humanitarian aid. EPA

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  A Turkish soldier in front of a collapsed building in Hatay. EPA

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  The rubble of buildings in the village of Besnaya in Syria's Idlib province. AFP

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  Russian rescuers search for survivors in the town of Jableh in Syria's Latakia province. AFP

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  A photo taken with a drone shows an aerial view over collapsed buildings after an earthquake in Hatay, Turkey. EPA

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  Destruction in Hatay city centre. AP

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  Members of the Turkish community in Berlin collect aid to support victims. Reuters

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  An injured man is carried to an ambulance after being rescued from the rubble in Hatay. Reuters

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  A man carries an aid box in Hatay. Getty

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  Bags of wood for fires are distributed in Hatay Turkey. Getty

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  A man trapped in rubble waits while debris is removed in Hatay. AFP

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  Residents look for their relatives in Hatay. AFP

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  Rescuers look for survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras, close to the quake's epicentre. AFP

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  Emergency personnel search for victims at the site of a collapsed building in the city of Iskenderun. EPA

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  Muhammet Ruzgar, five, is carried by rescuers from the site of a damaged building in Hatay. Reuters

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  A newborn found attached by her umbilical cord to her mother and pulled alive from the rubble of a home in northern Syria receives care at a clinic in Afrin. AFP

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  Women grieve in Hatay, Turkey. Reuters

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  Smoke billows at the site of a collapsed building in Iskenderun, Turkey. Getty

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  An Iraqi plane offloads aid at Damascus airport in Syria. Reuters

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  Two people cry near rubble in Turkey's Hatay province. Reuters

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  A damaged building in Iskenderun. EPA

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  Rescuers search for survivors at the site of a collapsed building in Iskenderun. EPA

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  Cennet Sucu is rescued from beneath the rubble of collapsed hospital in Iskenderun. Reuters

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  Security forces load Red Crescent aid on to a plane destined for Syria at a military base in Baghdad, Iraq. Reuters

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  People rest next to fire amid the rubble in Hatay, after a 7. 8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey's south-east. AFP

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  Rescuers board a charter plane in Cologne, Germany, as they head to Turkey to assist in the search for find survivors of the quake. Reuters

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  Injured survivors wait to be treated at a field hospital in Iskenderun,Turkey. Getty

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  Residents of Turkish city Adana gather at the scene of a collapsed building. The death toll in Turkey and Syria has risen to more than 2,000 after the region's strongest quake in nearly a century. AFP

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  Residents search for survivors amid the rubble of collapsed buildings in the village of Besnia, in Syria's north-western Idlib province. AFP

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  A rescuer carries a Syrian toddler, Raghad Ismail, away from the rubble of a building. Reuters

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  Residents wait anxiously as rescue operations take place in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Reuters

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  Rescue workers search for survivors under the rubble in Diyarbakir. Reuters

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  Residents search for survivors in Besnia, Syria. AFP

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  A Syrian man weeps as he carries the body of his son who was killed in an earthquake in the town of Jandaris. AFP

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  A wounded man in Jandaris. AFP

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  Rescue workers search for survivors in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Reuters

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  A man carries a girl to safety following the earthquake, in Jandaris, Syria. Reuters

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  People receive treatment at Al Rahma hospital in the Syrian town of Darkush. AFP

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  Rescuers carry a girl from a collapsed building, in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Reuters

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  A survivor is extracted from the rubble in Diyarbakir. AFP

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  The aftermath of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake on February 6 in Adana, Turkey. Reuters

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  Rescuers work near the site of a collapsed building in Hama, Syria. Reuters

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  Turkish sweet vendors at Dubai Waterfront Market watch earthquake updates on a phone. Victor Besa / The National

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  Hayri Aggül and Ismet Guven watch the latest news on the disaster. Victor Besa / The National

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  Syrian President Bashar Al Assad (C) leads an emergency cabinet meeting in the capital, Damascus. EPA

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  Hundreds of people were killed as they slept. Abd Almajed Alkarh for The National

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  Rescue teams search for survivors in Idlib, Syria. Abd Almajed Alkarh for The National

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  Rescue teams look for survivors under the rubble of a collapsed building in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. AFP

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  A desperate search for survivors in Aleppo. AFP

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  Despair in Diyarbakir, south-eastern Turkey. AFP

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  An injured survivor is pulled from the rubble in Diyarbakir. AFP

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  Relatives face an anxious wait as emergency teams search for survivors in Diyarbakir. EPA

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  Damage caused by the earthquake in Idlib, north-western Syria. Moawia Atrash for The National

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  An injured child is plucked from the rubble of a building following the earthquake in rebel-held Azaz, Syria. Reuters

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  A Syrian Civil Defence team recovering victims of the earthquake in Idlib. Moawia Atrash for The National

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  Tremors were felt as far away as Cyprus, Egypt and Iraq. Moawia Atrash for The National

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  Destruction in the rebel-held town of Jandaris, Syria. Reuters

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  People search through rubble in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Reuters

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  A car is smashed up by fallen debris in Azaz. Reuters

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  Damaged vehicles after the powerful earthquake in Diyarbakir. EPA

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  Severe damage to a mosque in Malatya, Turkey. AP

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  Several buildings collapsed, trapping many people underneath the rubble. AP

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  Hospitals in north-eastern Syria were full of injured people. AFP

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  An injured man waits for treatment at Bab Al Hawa hospital in Syria's Idlib province. AFP

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  A car is buried underneath the rubble of a collapsed building in Azmarin, a town in Syria's Idlib province. AP

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  Rescuers search for victims as an ambulance waits. AFP

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  An injured child awaits treatment at Bab Al Hawa hospital. AFP

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  Rescuers search through the rubble for survivors. EPA

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  The US Geological Survey said the quake began at 4.17am local time. EPA

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  People at the site of a collapsed building. EPA

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  The earthquake in Turkey caused widespread destruction. AP

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  People gather around a collapsed building in Pazarcik, in Turkey's Kahramanmaras province. AP

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  At least 130 buildings collapsed in the Turkish city of Malatya. Reuters

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  Rescuers search for victims in Diyarbakir. AFP

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  Rescuers carry a victim at the site of a collapsed building in Hama, Syria. AFP

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  Rescuers search for survivors in Hama. AFP

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  Rescuers carry a victim pulled out from under the rubble of an eight-storey building. AFP

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  Damaged buildings in Hama. The aftershocks of the quake were felt in Syria and other neighbouring countries. Reuters

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  A Syrian Civil Defence representative said the situation in the city was catastrophic. Reuters

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  The death toll is expected to rise in Turkey and Syria. Reuters

Follow the latest on the earthquake in Turkey

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey in the early hours of Monday morning is not the first to cause devastation in the country.

Much of Turkey lies on fault lines meaning that small and moderate earthquakes are common.

Monday’s quake brought down at least 6,000 buildings across the 10 provinces of Turkey, including hospitals and other public premises. The true scale of the damage and death toll is still being assessed.

But the threat has been well-known for years.

Earthquake researchers say there is a 95 per cent chance that an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 or stronger will strike Istanbul within the next 70 years. Such an event, they warn, would be likely to destroy at least 194,000 buildings and leave at least 10 per cent of the city’s 15 million inhabitants homeless.

Following Turkey’s last major earthquake, which hit Izmir in 1999, killed over 17,000 people, left another 50,000 injured and 500,000 homeless, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was then prime minister and is now President, took action.

Turkey's government passed legislation in 2004 mandating that all new construction met modern earthquake-proof standards.

Mr Erdogan made strong construction a political priority after another quake struck the Aegean coast in 2020, killing 114 people.

And yet experts say that the years of rapid, loosely-overseen development since the laws were passed means they may not have been enforced. That is on top of those built before they came into force.

The construction of buildings was also not “really adequate for an area that's susceptible to large earthquakes”, Roger Musson, honorary research associate at the British Geological Survey, told AFP.

Joanna Faure Walker, head of the University College London's Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, called for Turkey to check whether the legislation had been adhered to in light of the latest disaster.

She also urged Turkey to review “whether there is the possibility to improve the safety of older buildings”.

Carmen Solana, a volcanologist at the UK's Portsmouth University, said that because earthquakes cannot be predicted, tremor-resistant buildings are crucial in affected areas.

“The resistant infrastructure is unfortunately patchy in southern Turkey and especially Syria, so saving lives now mostly relies [on efforts to rescue survivors],” she said.

In Istanbul, Tayfun Kahraman, then head of the municipality’s Earthquake Risk Management Department, told Reuters in 2020 that “we do not believe that building regulations were applied correctly in Istanbul in the past”. However, he insisted that was changing.

“If strengthening the structures is determined to be a practical intervention, then this will be offered as a solution,” he said at the time.

So what can be done to prevent a building from collapsing?

In Japan, all buildings — even temporary ones — must be able to withstand powerful earthquakes. Building codes stipulate that smaller quakes shouldn’t damage buildings — they must be able to move and dissipate energy.

One way is using shock absorbers in the base, usually rubber blocks under the foundations and in the internal structures. Designing the buildings using regular columns and spacing helps prevent them from collapsing as does ensuring the materials are of sufficient standards and no corners are being cut.

This can be expensive, but not always.

World's deadliest earthquakes — in pictures

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  People wait for relief in Afghanistan after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake killed more than 1,100 people and injured more than 6,000 in June 2022. All photos: EPA

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  Damaged buildings in Los Cayos, Haiti, after a 7.2 magnitude quake struck in August 2021, killing more than 2,200

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  A village in Palu after 7.5 magnitude quake and a series of powerful aftershocks hit Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province in September 2018, killing at least 4,300

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  Rescue teams continue their operations in the rubble of the largely destroyed Lazio mountain village of Amatrice, Italy, after a devastating 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck in August 2016, leaving 299

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  An injured boy sits in a damaged house in Peshawar, Pakistan, after a7.6 magnitude earthquake struck in October 2015, killing 86,000

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  A woman sits on the top of a damaged temple in Kathmandu as she watches rescue workers search for victims of a 7.8 magnitude quake that struck in April 2015, killing more than 8,900 in Nepal, India, China and Bangladesh

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  A survivor carries his belongings in Longtoushan, in China's Yunnan province, after an earthquake shook the country's south-west in August 2014, killing several hundreds

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  A girl drinks water from a community tap in Pakistan's Balochistan province after a 7.7 magnitude quake struck in September 2013, killing more than 820 people and injuring hundreds

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  A fire rages at an oil refinery in Chiba city after an 8.8 magnitude quake hit northern Japan in March 2011

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  Overturned cars on a road in Santiago, Chile, after an 8.8 magnitude quake shook the country in February 2010

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  Haitians walk past damaged buildings in Puerto Principe after a quake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck in January 2010, killing more than 100,000 people

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  A house burns in Padang after a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island in September 2009, killing about 200

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  The quake-ravaged village of Onna, in Italy's L'Aquila province, after an earthquake struck in April 2009, killing 90

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  A man surveys the destruction in Shifang city, in China's Sichuan province, in May 2008 after an 8.0 magnitude earthquake killed more than 69,000, injured more than 374,000 and left 18,222 missing

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  The interior of a collapsed church in Ica, Peru, after an 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit the country in August 2007, killing 595 people

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  A devastated area in Bawuran village in Bantul, Yogyakarta, after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck in May 2006, killing more than 5,700

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  A man stands next to debris in Pakistani-administered Kashmir after an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 struck in March 2006, killing more than 86,000

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  Rescue workers survey the destruction caused by an 8.7 magnitude earthquake that shook Indonesia's Sumatra island in March 2005, killing 915 people

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  The trail of destruction in the Indonesian town of Banda Aceh, which was flattened by a tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake that struck near the west coast of northern Sumatra. The tsunami killed 227,898 people in 14 countries

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  Arg'e Bam, a 2,000-year-old historical attraction in southern Iran, was destroyed by a 6.3 magnitude quake that struck in December 2003, killing at least 34,000

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  Survivors line up for water at a make-shift camp in Bordl Manaiel, Algeria, after a 6.8 magnitude quake rocked the North African country in May 2003, killing more than 2,630

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  Afghans survey the damage after two powerful quakes, with magnitudes of 7.4 and 6.1, struck the country's Hindu Kush mountain range three weeks apart in March 2002, killing more than 2,160 people

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  A building damaged by a 6.9 magnitude quake that rocked India's western Gujarat state in January 2001, killing between 13,000 and 20,000 people

Using the appropriate strength of concrete and rebar steel in a building is important and straightforward. Even without additional measures, ensuring that the basic fabric of the structure is well-built is key.

That can be applied in middle-income and developing countries.

When an 8.2 magnitude quake hit Chile in 2014, only six people were killed and nine injured.

Experts attributed the small toll to tight building regulations.

“They’re a seismically active region of the world and they are very good at implementing their building codes, similar to California,” John Bellini, a Denver-based geophysicist at the US Geological Survey, told CNN at the time.

The country also had up-to-date planning. They evacuated over a million people from the city of Coquimbo within hours of the first quake, to save people from tsunamis. It meant that there was a much lower risk of casualties if aftershocks brought down buildings that were already damaged.

However, experts all agree that preparing for earthquakes is only half the battle. Looking at what worked and learning from mistakes after major quakes, as well as sharing best practices between at-risk countries, helps engineers find the best design to mitigate devastation.