On Feb 06, 2023, two very large earthquakes hit Türkiye. The first one occurred at 4:17 AM local time, near the city of Gaziantep in south-central Türkiye and close to the border to Syria. This magnitude M 7.8 earthquake occurred on the East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ) which is capable of producing large (magnitude M > 7) earthquakes, but hasn't done so for ~200 yrs. Only 9 hrs after the first quake, a second very large earthquake happened, ~100 km north of the first one, located on the Cardak Fault that connects to the East-Anatolian Fault system. With magnitude M 7.5-7.7, it is of almost the same size as the first one, and cannot be considered an aftershock, but instead it is a separate triggered event.

Our hearts and minds are with the Turkish people who suffer through these tragic events.