EDITORIAL: In terms of toll of life they take some of the earthquakes have been apocalyptic. And even when man has dug deep into the mysteries of Nature the earthquakes remain unpredictable, so to speak. All that we know about them is that they are caused as the tectonic plates rub into each other, violently shaking the crust above inhabited by humans.
One such 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Turkiye and Syria early Monday morning, followed by tremors throughout the day. By Tuesday noon the number of confirmed deaths in both the countries was about 5,000. But given that some 5,600 buildings have been flattened across several cities, the death toll is feared to rise inexorably.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is reported to have estimated that the fatalities could be as high 20,000. Rescuers are using heavy equipment and their bare hands to peel back rubble in search of survivors, who in some cases are heard begging for help.
Turkiye is one of the world’s most active earthquake zones. In 1939, 33,000 died when tremors shook eastern Erzincan province. The Duzce region suffered 7.4 magnitude earthquakes in 1999 that killed 17,000. As to why this Turkiye-Syria earthquake was so deadly there are quite a few befitting causes, including its timing, location, relatively quiet fault line and weak construction of collapsed buildings.
The earthquakes are neither a rare happening nor do they go un-responded by general public and seismologists alike. But these are inescapable as the planet Earth keeps cooling with tectonic plates trying to adjust to the shrinkage.
And when they happen the world reacts to them as a common cause and fight together by offering assistance, both monetary and material, to the affected country or countries. Both Turkiye and Syria are receiving offers of assistance in terms of food, blankets, tents and doctors. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has spoken to Turkish President, offering him help (PM to leave for Turkiye today).
Struck as Pakistan was by a massive earthquake in 2005 who knows better than it as to what does it mean and what to do to rebuild life in the shattered areas? Help came to Pakistan from all over the world, and the government of the day, politically solid as it was, didn’t take long to restore normality in the affected areas.
One cannot help recalling a meeting with doctors from Cuba who came all the way from half the world away to take care of the quake-affected patients. But where the world remains in doubt and helpless is a prediction about the timing of an earthquake.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023