NASA Shares Map of Earthquake Damage!

NASA shared the damage map of the 7.8 and 7.6 earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey. NASA has released a map of the damage caused by the earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey. The map provides an accurate and detailed overview of the devastation, highlighting the intensity of tremors felt in specific areas.

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NASA's Damage Map

The first earthquake originated on a fault 18 kilometers below the land surface. The shallow depth meant that the earthquake produced violent tremors that affected areas hundreds of kilometers away from the epicenter. The first quake was followed about nine hours later by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake and hundreds of smaller aftershocks. As news of the earthquake spread, scientists at space agencies around the world, including NASA, began processing and analyzing satellite data on the event.

ALOS-2 data provided by Sentinel Asia

The preliminary damage representation map above shows parts of the provinces of Türkoğlu, Kahramanmaraş and Nurdağı. Dark red pixels represent areas with a high probability of severe damage to buildings, homes and infrastructure, or changes to the terrain. Orange and yellow areas are moderately or partially damaged. Each pixel is approximately 30 meters wide.

The map is derived from data collected by PALSAR-2 aboard the Advanced Land Observation Satellite-2 (ALOS-2) on February 8, 2023. The satellite carries a synthetic aperture radar, a sensor that sends microwave pulses to the Earth's surface and listens for reflections of these waves to map the landscape, including buildings. By comparing the February 8 data with observations made by the same satellite before the earthquake (April 7, 2021 and April 6, 2022), scientists tracked changes and began to identify damaged areas. The ALOS-2 data was provided by Sentinel Asia and analyzed by the Singapore Earth Observatory - Remote Sensing Laboratory in collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech.