The country that experienced a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in February 2023 was Turkey. The earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on 6 February 2023 at 04:17 local time, with its epicenter near Gaziantep Province. It was the first and largest event in a devastating earthquake sequence.
The earthquake occurred along the East Anatolian Fault system, where tectonic plates move sideways past one another. A second major earthquake, measured at about magnitude 7.5 to 7.7 depending on the agency, struck the region roughly nine hours later. Thousands of aftershocks followed, including several strong enough to cause additional damage.
Although the disaster is commonly called the Turkey–Syria earthquakes, Turkey was the country where the magnitude 7.8 earthquake’s epicenter was located. The tremor was felt across a wide area, including Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus and parts of the Black Sea region. It became one of the deadliest natural disasters of the 21st century.