News > Why was Turkey’s earthquake so deadly and why did it happen?

Why was Turkey’s earthquake so deadly and why did it happen?

A major 7.8 magnitude earthquake was followed by two other strong quakes that devastated wide swaths of Turkey and Syria on Monday.  The quake hit at a depth of 18 kilometres and was centred in southern Turkey, near the northern border of Syria. Researchers said the earthquake was a strike-slip quake, where two tectonic plates slide past each other horizontally. The epicentre was near Gaziantep, a major city and provincial capital in Turkey.