(CNN) A verdant olive grove was split in two during Turkey’s devastating earthquake last week, creating a 984-foot-long valley that now divides the area.
Remarkable footage of the split olive grove has emerged from Turkey’s southeastern Altınozu District, which borders Syria, revealing a jagged, sandy-colored canyon-like chasm. The fissure reaches over 130 feet deep (40 meters).
Its formation is further evidence of the devastating power of last Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake, which killed tens of thousands of people in Syria and Turkey and destroyed entire city blocks.
Irfan Aksu, who lives in the neighborhood, told Turkey’s Demioren News Agency that when the earthquake started last Monday, it made “an incredible noise” where he lived.
“It was like a battlefield when we woke up,” he said.
He implored experts to survey the area for possible future damage. “This is not a small town, there are 1,000 houses and 7,000 people live here,” he said. “Of course we’re scared … if it was a little bit closer, it would have happened right in the middle of our town.”
Last Monday’s earthquake was the strongest in the world since an 8.1-magnitude quake struck a region near the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean in 2021, although the remote location of that incident caused little damage.
Turkey is no stranger to strong earthquakes as it lies on tectonic plate boundaries. Seven tremors measuring 7.0 or more have struck the country in the last 25 years – but last Monday’s was the deadliest.
A number of factors contributed to this earthquake being so deadly. One of them is the time of day it occurred. Because the quake happened early in the morning, many people were lying in their beds when it happened and are now trapped under the rubble of their homes.