UWM seismograph records Turkey earthquake on Sunday evening, Feb. 5
MILWAUKEE - The seismograph at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Geosciences Department registered the Turkey earthquake on Sunday evening, Feb. 5 – even though it is nearly 5,800 miles from Milwaukee.
The listing on the UWM website notes the signals from the earthquake registered at 7:17 p.m. Sunday. It even indicates the latitude, longitude, and magnitude of the deadly quake.
The powerful earthquake rocked wide swaths of Turkey and neighboring Syria on Monday, killing thousands and injuring thousands more as it toppled thousands of buildings and trapped residents under mounds of rubble.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured Monday’s quake at 7.8, with a depth of 18 kilometers (11 miles). Hours later, a 7.5 magnitude temblor struck more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) away.
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Authorities feared the death toll would keep climbing as rescuers searched through tangles of metal and concrete for survivors in a region beset by Syria’s 12-year civil war and a refugee crisis.
The quake was centered on Turkey’s southeastern province of Kahramanmaras. It was felt as far away as Cairo, Egypt.
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The region sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. Some 18,000 were killed in similarly powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999.