Does video footage posted on social media show a tall apartment building in southern Turkey collapsing from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6, 2023? No, that's not true: This footage is not recent and is not from Turkey. It shows the June 24, 2021, collapse of a portion of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in the American town of Surfside, Florida.
The Florida video resurfaced in a post on Facebook on February 6, 2023, published by the page Turkey Earthquake 2023. It was captioned:
Powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hits in southern Turkey.There are reports of several hundred dead.
This is how the post appeared at the time of the writing of this fact check:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Feb 07 15:19:17 2023 UTC)
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Feb 07 15:19:17 2023 UTC)
The actual 7.8 magnitude earthquake that shook Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023, was followed by a 7.5 magnitude aftershock among over 100 smaller tremors that destroyed "thousands" of buildings. At the time of writing, the death toll of the quake in the two countries has exceeded 7,200 people, according to government officials and a rescue service, Reuters reported.
By contrast, the exact cause of the collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, is still unknown, although several structural issues have been identified that could have played a role. Over a year after the collapse, the structural engineer hired by the town to investigate has not been able to pinpoint one specific cause for the structural failure. At a commission meeting on January 10, 2023, the engineer reported they were 90 percent sure geological conditions did not cause the condo collapse. The primary investigation of the collapse conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology is expected to conclude by 2025.
