Commentary: Reflections on the Turkey–Syria earthquakes of 6 February 2023

A Mw 7.7 earthquake shook the earth in south-eastern Türkiye near the border with Syria at 4.17 a.m. local time on 6 February 2023. The epicentre was 37 km (23 miles) west–northwest of Gaziantep (Figure 1), an urban area of more than 2 million people, 100 km north of Aleppo. The earthquake, measuring MMI = XI (extreme), was followed by a Mw 7.6 earthquake at 1.24 p.m., with epicentre 95 km north north-east of the first. Both shocks had shallow depth, estimated between 5 and 10 km, creating two vast areas of surface rupture, the first extending 300...