On 6 February 2023, at 04:17 TRT, a Mw 7.8 earthquake struck southern and central Turkey and northern and western Syria. The epicenter was 32 km west–northwest of Gaziantep. The earthquake had a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI. It was followed by a Mw 7.7 earthquake at 13:24. This earthquake was centered 95 km to the north-northeast from the first, in Kahramanmaraş Province. There was widespread damage and tens of thousands of fatalities.
The Mw 7.8 earthquake was the strongest to occur in Turkey since the 1939 Erzincan earthquake of the same magnitude, and jointly the second-strongest recorded in the country, after the 1668 North Anatolia earthquake. It was also one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the Levant. It was felt as far as Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Cyprus, and the Black Sea coast of Turkey. The earthquakes were followed by more than 2,100 aftershocks. The seismic sequence was the result of shallow strike-slip faulting.
There was widespread damage in an area of about 350,000 km². An estimated 14 million people, or 16 percent of Turkey's population, were affected.