This earthquake occurred on Tuesday the 17th of August at 3:02 am local time. The earthquake lasted forty-five seconds. The earthquake was pretty powerful; it measured 6.8-7.0 on the Richter Scale.

Turkey is in between two big tectonic plates. These plates are the Eurasian and African/Arabian plate. These two plates ground into one another north to south.

The Turkish landmass is a small tectonic plate which is being squeezed by the other two giant plates. This movement created a conservative margin called the Anatolian Fault. Many Turkish cities are located on this fault, and the slipping of this fault is what caused the earthquake. The epicentre of the earthquake was fifty-five miles east of Istanbul, Turkey. It was near the industrial city of Izmit.

WHERE EARTHQUAKES ARE MOST LIKELY TO OCCUR

The earthquake affected many towns and cities, and in these cities the population levels had been increasing...