On Monday, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 shook Turkey and Syria, leaving a staggering death toll and little to no time for the countries to prepare. This event is considered one of the most severe earthquakes in recent years due to the number of quakes of a similar magnitude in the past decade amounting to less than twenty. In comparison to the 6.2 earthquake that struck Central Italy in 2016 and killed some 300 people, Monday's event released 250 times as much energy.

The cause of the earthquake can be attributed to the East Anatolian Fault, a strike-slip fault where two rock plates are pushing up against each other across a vertical fault line. The initial rupture of this quake began at a relatively shallow depth, making the shaking more intense at ground level.

Realizing the severity of the situation, aftershocks began happening almost immediately afterwards, with an initial 6.7-magnitude coming