On February 6, 2023, two large earthquakes struck southeastern Türkiye near the Syrian border. The first one (the Kahramanmaraş earthquake) reached a magnitude Mw 7.8 rupturing the southern segment of the predominantly southwest-trending East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ). Just nine hours later, another devastating earthquake (Mw 7.6, the Elbistan earthquake) occurred about 90 kilometers away, along the east-west striking Northern Strand of the EAFZ, specifically the Sürgü–Misis Fault system (Figure 1). These earthquakes caused catastrophic damage across southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria, resulting in over 50,000 fatalities and tens of thousands of injuries. The most affected Turkish provinces included Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep, Hatay, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, and others [AFAD,...
Published: 2026-03-04