Quake Toll Tops 20,000

The death toll from a series of earthquakes in central Turkey and northern Syria earlier this week passed 20,000, making it the deadliest seismic event since the quake that left hundreds of thousands dead in Haiti in 2010.

The impact of the disaster was acute in Syria's rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib, which remains largely cut off from aid. In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called for a three-month state of emergency in 10 of its provinces, including Gaziantep, the quake's epicenter along the East Anatolian fault zone. See previous write-up here.

Geologists built a visual showing the pace and magnitude of the over 200 shocks Monday. View it here.