Every once in a while, the earth decides to tell us what it thinks of all the stuff we’ve done to it. The earthquake in Turkey and Syria – back to back 7-plus Richter Scale monsters – has taken down more than 6,000 buildings in Turkey alone, according to NBC News. Here is a photograph of just one of them. Two rescuers appear to be standing in the rubble comforting each other, in shock at what has happened.
What an excellent thoughtful article, describing the idea of, the construction of, and then living in the apartment building. The death, the grief, the insecurity.
We have to appreciate each precious day. Because....
I recall somewhere in my teens watching a documentary on PBS that made the point that without things like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the planet's stresses would tear it apart. That... made an impression. That was my realization that the planet has no use for us. We're just hitching a ride. Be nice if more people realized that and stopped trying to slash the tires...
I think Lucian does justice here to the human tragedy of the earthquakes in Turkey. Mass media reports fatalities as if the earthquakes were a sporting event . . . seems callous to me.
Were it not for circumstances getting in my way, I'd be living in Turkey right now. It will forever be my favorite place on earth, so beautiful and fascinating, and its people so good-hearted and generous. My heart breaks.
Thinking that the world, or Turkey or Syria, somehow deserves this calamity is bullshit that flies in the face of science and the nature of reality. Geology is fascinating. There was a smaller quake, almost simultaneous to that in Turkey, felt in Darien, NY, a town about 15 miles east of Buffalo, NY. It was the strongest quake here since 1944.
Asia's been hit by strong quakes for decades. They're the most destructive force of nature on earth. When one occurs, the whole world contributes to rescue efforts without a thought about politics, It should be reminding us that there is still good in this world, not that every disaster is somehow something we brought down on ourselves.
As a retired professor of physical science, with a particular interest in seismology, the swarm of temblors striking Turkey/Syria are certainly of great academic interest to me. However, the tragic loss of life, and disastrous destruction are painful reminders that the natural forces of our home planet are very often far greater than our ability to tame or escape them. Large earthquakes certainly among the most destructive. What is particularly sad is that our understanding of seismicity has advanced to the point where we not only know where earthquakes are likely to occur, but how frequently, and with what maximum magnitude. In that sense, these killer earthquakes should have surprised no one. This area of southern Turkey/northern Syria is very active, and has been for thousands of years. This has happened there before, and will happen again. It’s not one-and-done. The shaking caused by movement within Earth’s crust is not what kills people. It’s the collapse of improperly constructed buildings that is the killer. The safest place to be during an earthquake is out in the open. Replacing the fallen structures with similar construction is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. Yet, that is what happens all too frequently. Engineers do know how to design buildings that can and will resist violent shaking. The Japanese are probably the best practitioners of this structural engineering specialty. There really is no rational reason the horrors we are witnessing in Turkey/Syria should ever happen again. When stringent earthquake building codes are in effect, and enforced, trapped people in collapsed rubble screaming for help while their families and friends stand by helplessly waiting for the screams to stop would not happen. However, building restrictions and codes are invariably contentious political issues wherever they are proposed, and Turkey didn’t enact their codes, after long delays, until last year. Perhaps this time they will be enforced. I hope so.
Note: The Richter Scale is no longer the standard for measuring earthquake magnitude. A similar scale just called the ‘Magnitude Scale’ is now used worldwide. Richter and his colleague, Gutenberg, created their scale at a time when there weren’t any, and it was meant for California earthquakes, and the seismographs they had developed at a time when there wasn’t a standardized seismograph design either.
Thank you, Lucien, for this thoughtful and empathetic piece. I lived in California for 35 years and was in Berkeley for the Loma Prieta quake during the World Series a few decades ago. It was a bigun but nothing like the destruction that these good people experienced. Scared the hell out of us. Your insight helps us understand that we’re all just people hitchin’ a ride on this planet and are all at the mercy of the natural processes through which our ride passes. If more people read this piece maybe more people could find a way to relate to those who our government has deemed “them.”
Thank you for humanizing the lives and sad injuries and deaths of those residents. Vertical living is inevitable when land is scarce and people need housing. I live in a high rise building in NYC (Manhattan) and am always concerned about escaping a fire. Never even thought about an earthquake.
While this tragedy was not preventable I can’t stop thinking that as a society we allow wars to kill countless lives past, present and future.
Thank you for this gift of thought . I will also express my equal concern for the 4 million in northern Syria, whose only access road used for aid is currently blocked.
Events like this should remind us of how insignificant and temporary creatures we are on this planet. So many spend their lives grinding, fighting, hating, judging. What a waste of the precious gift of life we've been so randomly awarded.
All we can do is prepare our built environment for the inevitable big earthquakes (I'm a few miles from the San Andreas Fault on the SF Peninsula), but the present economic/social/political incentives are all wrong to avoid disaster, and the short-term profit/corruption incentives are all right to ensure disaster when the inevitable occurs.
We humans like to think of ourselves as masters of the planet, but we most definitely are not. The Earth has been here for billions of years with billions of years left, maybe, and it is a dynamic planet, not like the dead sphere of our Moon, with the continents shifting and moving, sculpted by the forces of wind, water, and sunshine, with us at their indifferent mercy.
What an excellent thoughtful article, describing the idea of, the construction of, and then living in the apartment building. The death, the grief, the insecurity.
We have to appreciate each precious day. Because....
I recall somewhere in my teens watching a documentary on PBS that made the point that without things like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the planet's stresses would tear it apart. That... made an impression. That was my realization that the planet has no use for us. We're just hitching a ride. Be nice if more people realized that and stopped trying to slash the tires...
I think Lucian does justice here to the human tragedy of the earthquakes in Turkey. Mass media reports fatalities as if the earthquakes were a sporting event . . . seems callous to me.
Were it not for circumstances getting in my way, I'd be living in Turkey right now. It will forever be my favorite place on earth, so beautiful and fascinating, and its people so good-hearted and generous. My heart breaks.
Thinking that the world, or Turkey or Syria, somehow deserves this calamity is bullshit that flies in the face of science and the nature of reality. Geology is fascinating. There was a smaller quake, almost simultaneous to that in Turkey, felt in Darien, NY, a town about 15 miles east of Buffalo, NY. It was the strongest quake here since 1944.
Asia's been hit by strong quakes for decades. They're the most destructive force of nature on earth. When one occurs, the whole world contributes to rescue efforts without a thought about politics, It should be reminding us that there is still good in this world, not that every disaster is somehow something we brought down on ourselves.
As a retired professor of physical science, with a particular interest in seismology, the swarm of temblors striking Turkey/Syria are certainly of great academic interest to me. However, the tragic loss of life, and disastrous destruction are painful reminders that the natural forces of our home planet are very often far greater than our ability to tame or escape them. Large earthquakes certainly among the most destructive. What is particularly sad is that our understanding of seismicity has advanced to the point where we not only know where earthquakes are likely to occur, but how frequently, and with what maximum magnitude. In that sense, these killer earthquakes should have surprised no one. This area of southern Turkey/northern Syria is very active, and has been for thousands of years. This has happened there before, and will happen again. It’s not one-and-done. The shaking caused by movement within Earth’s crust is not what kills people. It’s the collapse of improperly constructed buildings that is the killer. The safest place to be during an earthquake is out in the open. Replacing the fallen structures with similar construction is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. Yet, that is what happens all too frequently. Engineers do know how to design buildings that can and will resist violent shaking. The Japanese are probably the best practitioners of this structural engineering specialty. There really is no rational reason the horrors we are witnessing in Turkey/Syria should ever happen again. When stringent earthquake building codes are in effect, and enforced, trapped people in collapsed rubble screaming for help while their families and friends stand by helplessly waiting for the screams to stop would not happen. However, building restrictions and codes are invariably contentious political issues wherever they are proposed, and Turkey didn’t enact their codes, after long delays, until last year. Perhaps this time they will be enforced. I hope so.
Note: The Richter Scale is no longer the standard for measuring earthquake magnitude. A similar scale just called the ‘Magnitude Scale’ is now used worldwide. Richter and his colleague, Gutenberg, created their scale at a time when there weren’t any, and it was meant for California earthquakes, and the seismographs they had developed at a time when there wasn’t a standardized seismograph design either.
Thank you Lucian. Please, if you can donate to Doctors Without Borders.
Thank you, Lucien, for this thoughtful and empathetic piece. I lived in California for 35 years and was in Berkeley for the Loma Prieta quake during the World Series a few decades ago. It was a bigun but nothing like the destruction that these good people experienced. Scared the hell out of us. Your insight helps us understand that we’re all just people hitchin’ a ride on this planet and are all at the mercy of the natural processes through which our ride passes. If more people read this piece maybe more people could find a way to relate to those who our government has deemed “them.”
Thoughtful, sensitive piece. Quick point: The earthquake struck at 4:17 AM, not in the afternoon.
She's been trying to shake us off for a while now. Can't say that I blame her.
Tragedies are so much more than numbers and this eloquent piece is a heartfelt reminder. Thank you.
Thank you for humanizing the lives and sad injuries and deaths of those residents. Vertical living is inevitable when land is scarce and people need housing. I live in a high rise building in NYC (Manhattan) and am always concerned about escaping a fire. Never even thought about an earthquake.
While this tragedy was not preventable I can’t stop thinking that as a society we allow wars to kill countless lives past, present and future.
Thank you for this gift of thought . I will also express my equal concern for the 4 million in northern Syria, whose only access road used for aid is currently blocked.
Events like this should remind us of how insignificant and temporary creatures we are on this planet. So many spend their lives grinding, fighting, hating, judging. What a waste of the precious gift of life we've been so randomly awarded.
A fine appeciation of the victims, living and dead.
All we can do is prepare our built environment for the inevitable big earthquakes (I'm a few miles from the San Andreas Fault on the SF Peninsula), but the present economic/social/political incentives are all wrong to avoid disaster, and the short-term profit/corruption incentives are all right to ensure disaster when the inevitable occurs.
We humans like to think of ourselves as masters of the planet, but we most definitely are not. The Earth has been here for billions of years with billions of years left, maybe, and it is a dynamic planet, not like the dead sphere of our Moon, with the continents shifting and moving, sculpted by the forces of wind, water, and sunshine, with us at their indifferent mercy.