© USGS
Okcular - A strong, pre-dawn earthquake knocked down stone and mud-brick houses, barns and minarets in eastern Turkey on Monday, killing 51 people in five villages, the government said.
The earthquake surprised many residents as they slept, crumpling buildings into piles of rubble. Panicked survivors fled into narrow village streets, some climbing out of windows, as nearly 80 aftershocks measuring up to 5.5 and 5.3 magnitude rattled the region.
The Kandilli seismology center said the 6.0-magnitude quake hit at 4:32 a.m. (0232 GMT, 9 p.m. EST Sunday) near the village of Basyurt in a remote, sparsely populated area of Elazig province. The region is 340 miles (550 kilometers) east of Ankara, the capital. The U.S. Geological Survey listed the quake at 5.9 magnitude.
The government initially put the death toll at 57 but later lowered it to 51 with no explanation. In addition to the deaths, 34 people were being treated for injuries, Turkey's crisis center said.
The damage appeared worst in the village of Okcular, where at least 15 of the village's 900 residents were killed, the Elazig governor's office said.
As relatives rushed in for news of their loved ones, authorities blocked off the area so ambulances and rescue teams could maneuver up Okcular's narrow, steep roads. Residents lit fires to keep warm in the winter cold, with snow-covered mountains in the background.
"The village is totally flattened," village administrator Hasan Demirdag told private NTV television. Resident Ali Riza Ferhat said he was woken up by the jolt. "I tried to get out of the door but it wouldn't open. I came out of the window and started helping my neighbors," he told NTV television. "We removed six bodies."
Comment: What a load of nonsense: "Barth and others say the changes are consistent with current climate-change models. Previous studies have found that the oceans are becoming more acidic as they absorb more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases."
The oceans are warming due to undersea volcanism. This is heating the LOWER atmosphere, while the UPPER atmosphere is cooling rapidly due to space dust and other possible factors. When the moisture in the lower atmosphere hits the colder upper atmosphere, you get torrential rains, hail, snow. All of this is precursor to the rapid onset of the next Ice Age.
There is no Global Warming, though there is certainly coming Global Climate change.