Why is there no early warning system for earthquakes? Asia and the Pacific’s seismic risk hotspots and intricate fault system are well documented, however uncertainties remain in the predictability of events. Large earthquakes are always a surprise - and yet they are always inevitable. Seismic risk hotspots of Asia and the Pacific and associated deadly events Since 1970, there have been eleven mega earthquakes/tsunamis with fatality rates of 20,000 and above, all located along these Faultlines (See Figure 1).įigure 1. And of significance, most of Türkiye sits on the Anatolian plate between two major faults: the North Anatolian Fault and the East Anatolian Fault. The Seismic Shift that threatens the Islamic Republic of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan is another key active zone which led to the 20 earthquakes in Islamic Republic of Iran. Causing over 226,000 deaths, this disaster event brought global awareness to the danger of tsunamis, which were a relatively lesser-known disaster type at the time. In 2004 this generated a 9.3 magnitude earthquake and the Indian Ocean tsunami, the largest tsunami in recorded history and second most deadly seismic disaster event.
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In April and May 2015 this zone gave rise to the series of earthquakes that devastated Nepal and affected its neighbours, including Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar.Īnother highly active Faultline is the Great Sumatran Fault. The region’s second most seismically active zone is the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt.
These fault lines threaten many countries, of which the most populous are Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia. The highest risk is in the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, where tectonic plate movements create around 90 per cent of the world’s earthquakes, with the potential for associated tsunamis. The Asia-Pacific region has the world’s two most seismically active fault lines – which stretch for thousands of kilometres and cross many national borders. While Asia-Pacific’s seismic risk hotspots are known, uncertainties lie in its specificities The 7.6 magnitude earthquake killed 242,000 people. The seismic disaster event that resulted in the highest number of fatalities was the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in Hebei, China. In Asia and the Pacific, for example, over 2 million lives have been lost due to extreme events between 19 over 45 per cent of the casualties were caused by earthquakes and tsunamis alone, followed by tropical cyclones (36 per cent), floods (12 per cent) and heatwaves (7 per cent) (Source: EM-DAT, accessed 13 February 2023). Of all natural hazards, earthquakes cause the deadliest disasters.
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Flattening buildings, the full scale of the catastrophe is still emerging its overall impact on the people, economy, and environment is colossal and recovery will be extensive.Įarthquakes have been the deadliest disasters in Asia and the Pacific More than 40,000 people in Türkiye and over 5,800 in Syria have been reported dead.
Multiple earthquakes, the strongest being of 7.7 magnitude, struck southern Türkiye and northern Syria on 6 February 2023. The earthquake was extremely powerful, and more deadly because it struck at a relatively shallow depth and was followed by a second major shock and thousands of aftershocks.
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