Syria/Turkey quake

While I've been following this since it happened, I don't think I've said anything on the blog, yet, about the huge earthquake that struck both Syria and Turkey two weeks ago. The death toll from the quake is nearing 50,000 (46,000 at present). Compare this to the enormous 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran, which took the lives of around 34,000 people. As you'll see in the video below, the recent quake opened a huge rift in the earth, and people are only beginning to put their lives back together. I can't even imagine a catastrophe on this scale. Some of the destruction is being blamed on corrupt building practices. One site says that the affected region sits on an "active fault zone" with a long history of seismic instability. More could perhaps have been done in terms of warning systems, etc., but it is hard to know how much more could have been done. Syria is a war-torn country with other priorities, and I don't know the extent to which Turkey engages in earthquake preparedness. Meanwhile, the death toll is expected to rise even higher. The video below gives you some idea of the forces involved in a 7.8 quake. Wikipedia has a detailed (and constantly updated) article here.