People search for survivors in the rubble in Diyarbakir, after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck south-east Türkiye. At least 284 people died and more than 2 300 people were injured in one of Türkiye’s biggest quakes in at least a century. Photo: ILYAS AKENGIN/AFP
A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit south-east Türkiye and Syria early on Monday, toppling buildings and sending panicked residents pouring outside on a cold winter night.
As of 7am, South African time, the next day, more than 4 000 people were confirmed dead in Türkiye.
President Tayyip Erdogan called the quakes Türkiye’s “biggest disaster since 1939”. That year, a magnitude 7.8 tremor had struck the city of Erzincan, resulting in the death of 33 000 people.
The first quake on Monday was centred north of the Gaziantep, about 90km from the Syrian border.
The head of Syria’s National Earthquake Centre, Raed Ahmed, told a pro-government radio station that it was “historically, the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the centre”. The second shallow quake hit at 1.24pm local time, 4km south-south-east of the town of Ekinozu.
Frank Hoogerbeets, a researcher at the Netherlands Solar System Geometry Survey (SSGEOS), tweeted: predicted the catastrophic event, tweeting on Friday, February 3, that “sooner or later” there would be a magnitude 7.5 earthquake in south-central Türkiye, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
Sooner or later there will be a ~M 7.5 #earthquake in this region (South-Central Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon). #deprem pic.twitter.com/6CcSnjJmCV
— Frank Hoogerbeets (@hogrbe) February 3, 2023
SSGEOS monitors the geometry between celestial bodies related to seismic activity.
On February 2, the SSGEOS said on its website that “larger seismic activity may occur from 4 to 6 February, most likely up to mid or high 6 magnitude with a slight possibility of a larger seismic event around 4 February”.
Hoogerbeets’ prediction has since gone viral.
“As I stated earlier, sooner or later this would happen in this region, similar to the years 115 and 526. These earthquakes are always preceded by critical planetary geometry, as we had on 4-5 Feb,” he tweeted on Monday.
His post had 3.2 million views as of Monday morning.
In simple terms, planetary bodies all have a level of gravity in them which pulls smaller planetary objects toward them. This is how Earth’s gravity keeps our moon in place and the sun’s gravitational pull forms our solar system.
When planets align in a certain way, the minute gravitational changes in our solar system can have an effect on Earth and its tectonic plates.
Mining geology, earth sciences and earthquake specialist Serkan Içelli agreed with Hoogerbeets ,telling the Turkish newspaper “Daily Sabah” that he was expecting a disastrous quake in the Aegean region.
“The Aegean region is a very complex place for us. Unfortunately, we do not follow that region very well, especially the area under the island of Crete, called the Hellenic Arc, is dangerously prone to earthquakes,” he said.