Turkey - Syria, Kahramanmaras Earthquake 7.8

I would like to start my first blog with the devastating Earthquake that happened in Turkey at 4:17 AM on Feb. 6, 2023 near Pazarcık City, a magnitude of 7.8. Another one is hit after 9 hours later with a magnitude of 7.5.

Many scientific articles have been published and some of them are still ongoing.

Today we would like to mention an active fault zone in some important cities of Turkey. The Chamber of Geological Engineers of Turkey has been published with names of living cities at the top of the fault zone.

You can find the cities report below,

Kahramanmaras is near to epicenter of both Earthquakes of 7.8 and 7.5. As you can see in the map below many active faults are located in Kahramanmaras city center and demolition occurs in those areas. As we well know, the majority area of the city ground is alluvium material due to river sediments around the city and feeding the plain area of Kahramanmaras. JMO reports as you can reach from the link, showing one more time how important it is when choosing the construction zones and considering the morphological and geological properties of the area.

As you well know Earthquake affected Hatay city center so hard that many buildings collapsed and many of them are not able to live anymore. In this respect the active fault zone is getting more important when we are planning new buildings. As you can see below, an active fault zone has been shown below photos with red color and located east of Hatay. Geological surveys are showing that ground deposits are mainly aluvyons and it is the very weak soil and not resistant to earthquake waves. Please check the link for a detailed report of Hatay active fault zones and geological properties.

We would like to share other city reports such as Bingöl, Osmaniye, Kayseri, Aydın, Balıkesir, Denizli, Burdur, Erzincan, Erzurum, Eskişehir, Hakkari, Kocaeli, Konya, Manisa, Muğla and Tokat cities.