Two major earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and later 7.5 killed thousands of people in southern Turkey and northern Syria, destroying almost all buildings to the ground. The published photos and videos are shocking. While a huge number of buildings collapsed in Turkey, other similar buildings remain standing. The collapsed buildings include the newly built apartment blocks too, which were earthquake-proof. However, according to the building code, all structures should maintain construction standards. That being said, either all of the structures should collapse, or all of them should remain standing.  But why were some buildings affected and some neighboring buildings did not face any problems? This occurrence raised questions about the maintenance of building safety standards and triggers corruption. Let’s find out the reasons why so many buildings collapsed in Turkey's earthquake.  Read More: Earthquake Safety: Do’s and Don’ts during an Earthquake What Experts Say Earthquake engineers at the University of Buffalo suggest that behind the seemingly random occurrence of collapses, there are likely some underlying causes. Extreme shaking from earthquakes like the Feb. 6, magnitude 7.8, and magnitude 7.5 can lead to a building's collapse. This is due to various factors, including shaking intensity and duration, building design and detailing, construction quality, construction documents, soil conditions, construction oversight, and structural modifications. Andrew Whittaker, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering, explains these contributing elements. In the United States, modern reinforced concrete buildings are designed to tolerate damage in the event of severe earthquake shaking and will not collapse. This same philosophy has been adopted in many other countries, and Turkey is not an exception. Nonetheless, these buildings may still collapse if the construction quality is poor, design errors have been made, the shaking is more intense than expected, or a combination of these factors has been present. These brought up so many questions, and the BBC started investigating to find out the answer. Read More: Post-Earthquake Cautions: Do’s & Don’ts