By: Eric Murphy Asare

Geologist at the Ghana Geological Service, Mr. Nicholas Opoku explaining the 7.8-magnitude Turkey-Syria quake which led to the passing of over 55,000 people including Ghana’s Christian Atsu says numbers are used to represent the size of the earthquake to know its strength or intensity.

“Seismograph is the primary earthquake measuring instrument. The seismograph produces a digital graphic recording of the ground motion caused by the seismic waves. The digital recording is called a seismogram. A network of worldwide seismographs detects and measures the strength and duration of the earthquake's waves and are measured with numbers” he explained.

He said numbers from 1 to 5 are considered not strong enough to cause any extreme damage during earthquakes however, beyond 7 can cause any destruction as happened in Turkey Syria however, some countries according to him have developed resistance technology to avert situations of this kind.

Reacting to the arrest of building contractors by the Turkish government, the geologist said, there are building codes every building contractor must follow.
”the building codes are meant to determine the level of resistance against earthquakes, In most cases, the probability is used, for instance, if the developers have checked the level of magnitude earthquake can cause before constructing a particular building, and it happened on the same magnitude then the developers are not at fault but if their checks exceed or defers from the magnitude checked, then there is a question mark” he explained.

Mr. Nicholas Opoku said, Ghana has similar codes governing the construction of buildings and it’s the responsibility of building engineers to check before any construction, the magnitudes against seismic waves.

He further said earthquakes are usually caused when the underground rock suddenly breaks and there is rapid motion along a fault. This sudden release of energy causes seismic waves that make the ground shake.

The double whammy of intense shaking collapsed thousands of buildings and killed over 55,000 people, leaving behind a humanitarian crisis in an already vulnerable area. The epicenter of the quakes was near the city of Gaziantep, where there are currently hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. Aleppo, a city in Syria that has been destroyed by civil war, also felt the brunt of the earthquakes.

Source//sompaonline.com/Gh.