The world is still reeling from the devastating series of earthquakes that struck Syria and Türkiye this week, injuring more than 68,000 people and killing over 15,000 at the time of this writing. That number is predicted to rise, with some estimates from the United Nations anticipating a death toll as high as 20,000 people, making it one of the deadliest earthquakes this century.
The earthquake occurred at a "triple junction," where the boundaries of three tectonic plates meet: in this case, the African, Anatolian and Arabian plates. As these giant rock formations rub against each other, they release massive amounts of energy. In this case, it struck about 11 miles (18 kilometers) below ground, west of the city of Gaziantep, Türkiye, which is about two hours north of Aleppo, Syria. Nearly 6000 buildings have been destroyed and many victims are unaccounted for.
