On February 6, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake shook Turkey and Syria. This quake was so powerful that it was felt 1200 kilometres away in Cairo, Egypt.

“Disaster of the century”

By late February, almost 50,000 people were confirmed dead, with countless thousands still missing.

Turkey is an earthquake hotspot. It sits on a small tectonic plate that is squeezed on three sides by bigger plates. Despite frequent, violent quakes, many buildings have not been reinforced to withstand the shaking.