A magnitude 7.8 earthquake — a whopper of a tremor — emanated from southeast Turkey early Monday morning, toppling buildings and killing thousands of people in the country and in neighboring Syria. This corner of the globe sits at the intersection of three tectonic plates, including the Arabian Plate that’s moving northward into Europe. Pressure along the fault has been building, and when it finally released, it appears that an area nearly 120 miles long and 15 miles wide got displaced, unleashing the earthquake. Ari Daniels reports on the science behind this devastating quake.
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