On February 6, an extremely strong earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck southeast Turkey, near the border with Syria.. Seismic waves were recorded by sensors around the world and could be observed spreading across Europe, including the UK..

The earthquake destroyed buildings, killed at least 4.5 thousand people, there is evidence of the destruction of gas pipelines, which led to fires.

Jenny Jenkins from the Department of Earth Sciences at Durham University explained why the quake was so devastating, Science Alert writes..

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This region of Turkey is prone to earthquakes because it is located at the intersection of three tectonic plates: Anatolian, Arabian and African. The Arabian plate is moving north, which is why the Anatolian plate, on which Turkey is located, is being pushed to the west. Movement of tectonic plates creates pressure on fault zones at their boundaries. It is the sudden release of this pressure that causes earthquakes and earth tremors..

The earthquake on February 6 probably occurred on one of the main faults that are located on the borders between the Anatolian and Arabian plates: either the East Anatolian fault or the Dead Sea fault. They are both "

Although there are many earthquakes in this region caused by the ongoing movement of tectonic plates, the last earthquake was so devastating because of the amount of energy that was released.. Since 1970, only three earthquakes of magnitude greater than six have occurred within 250 kilometers of the site, according to the US Geological Survey..

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The February 6 event, with a magnitude of 7.8, is significantly larger than those that have occurred in the area before, releasing more than twice as much energy as the strongest earthquake that was previously recorded in the region (magnitude 7.4).

Modern seismologists use the moment magnitude scale, which is the amount of energy released by an earthquake (the Richter scale is obsolete, although it is sometimes misquoted in the news).

This scale is non-linear: each step up represents a release of energy that is 32 times the previous one.. This means that magnitude 7.8 actually releases about 6,000 times more energy than the more moderate magnitude 5 earthquakes that typically occur in the region..

We tend to think that the energy of an earthquake comes from the epicenter, but in fact it is associated with movement along the fault line.. The stronger the earthquake, the more the fault line shifts.

For an earthquake of magnitude 7.8, movement was likely observed over an area 190 kilometers long and 25 kilometers wide. That is, the shaking of the earth was felt over a very large area.

It is estimated that 610,000 people felt the strong shocks, enough to cause any damage, up to 80 kilometers to the northeast along the boundary of the tectonic plate.. Light tremors were felt even in Istanbul, which is located at a distance of 810 kilometers, as well as in Baghdad (800 kilometers) and Cairo (950 kilometers).

Large earthquakes are followed by a series of smaller ones known as aftershocks.. They occur as the earth's crust adjusts to voltage changes.. They can be observed for several days and even years..

In the first 12 hours after the first shock in the southeast of Turkey, three other earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 6.0 occurred at once. The first was a magnitude 6.7, it happened just 11 minutes after the first shock, and there were hundreds of aftershocks of lesser magnitude.. Later in the morning, another earthquake of magnitude 7.5 struck further north in another but adjacent fault system: the Syorgyu Fault..

This quake was powerful enough to be considered a separate event, Jenkins said, but it was most likely caused by the first quake, although it led to a series of aftershocks..

While usually much smaller than the main shock, aftershocks can be just as devastating, further damaging infrastructure affected by the first quake and hindering rescue efforts..