Earthquakes in Turkey kill more than 4,000

Two separate earthquakes on Monday razed large swaths of Turkey and Syria. The first—a magnitude 7.8—struck in the morning in Turkey, and that afternoon a magnitude 7.5 quake struck about 30 miles north in Turkey. Rescuers were still searching amid freezing afternoon temperatures for people in the rubble. More than 4,000 people died in the quake and thousands more are wounded. Among the communities affected by the quakes are refugee camps in war-torn northwest Syria. 

Will there be aftershocks? Aftershocks have already started in the region, and officials expect many more in the next few days. In 1999,  a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck the region, killing more than 17,000 people and leaving around 500,000 people homeless. Two moderate aftershocks followed that quake. The region is on top of a major fault line and experiences frequent quakes. 

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Reichard’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about airstrikes in Syria last year.