Earthquakes in Turkey

A Research Project

In

Science 10

Submitted by:

Cruz, Mondie Jhun

Felipe, Aidan Charles
Fernandez, Elbenz
Florendo, Elaijah
Flores, Angelo
Mag isa, Maria Juliana Vanness
Marañon, Kristina Cassandra
Masbud, Balkisah
Merez, Gemma

Submitted to:

Ms. Rugiemay C. Vargas

I. Introduction

Our topic is all about the country of Turkey. Officially the Republic of Turkey is a
transcontinental country located mainly in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the
Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. East Thrace, located in Europe, is separated from
Anatolia by the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorous strait and the Dardanelles. Turkey is
bordered by Greece and Bulgaria to its northwest; Georgia to its northeast; Armenia, the
Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the south.
Istanbul is the largest city, but more central Ankara is the capital. Approximately 70 to 80 per
cent of the country's citizens identify as Turkish. Kurds are the largest minority; the size of
the Kurdish population is a subject of dispute with estimates placing the figure at anywhere
from 12 to 25 per cent of the population.

We would want to carry out through our research the interesting parts about Turkey. The
most damage that happen through out their history and, what did they do to cope up from
this. What plates is it that can do a strong earthquake that might affect Turkey?. They have
devices to alarm and prevent them from that earthquakes and tsunamis. They also have some
evacuation plans for this kind of happening just like the other countries. We’ll carry out this
topic in our research.

Y’all need to read and know this kind of knowledge… why? Simply because this kind of
happenings like earthquakes and tsunamis has a lot of possibilities that it’ll happen on our
country. Come to think of it Philippines has a lot of active volcanoes. Earthquakes has a lot
of chances to occur. That’s why we’ll need to know the devices and plans of other countries
to prevent this kind of disasters and, you can read and know all of that in our research.
II. Statement of the problem

Through this project, we would like to answer the following questions:

1. Among the records of earthquakes in turkey which is recorded to be the strongest? When
did it happen? How much damage has it caused?

2. What cause the plates in turkey to move? What type of plate boundary does it have?

3. What preparations does turkey make to minimize the effect of earthquakes?

4. What are the latest technology of turkey that is being use in their structures and buildings?

5. How can we apply their technologies and practices in the Philippines?

III. Hypothesis

The earthquakes and volcanic activities in Turkey is caused by convergent plate boundaries.
 IV. Review of Related Researches

Turkey, country that occupies a unique geographic position, lying partly in Asia and partly
in Europe. Throughout its history it has acted as both a barrier and a bridge between the two
continents.

The country has a north-south extent that ranges from about 300 to 400 miles (480 to 640 km),
and it stretches about 1,000 miles from west to east. Turkey is bounded on the north by the Black
Sea, on the northeast by Georgia and Armenia, on the east by Azerbaijan and Iran, on the
southeast by Iraq and Syria, on the southwest and west by the Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean
Sea, and on the northwest by Greece and Bulgaria. The capital is Ankara, and its largest city and
seaport is Istanbul.

Ankara Istanbul
The 1999 İzmit earthquake (also known as the Kocaeli, Gölcük, or Marmara earthquake)
occurred on 17 August at 03:01:40 local time in northwestern Turkey. The shock had a moment
magnitude of 7.6 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The event lasted for 37
seconds, killing around 17,000 people and left approximately half a million people homeless.
The nearby city of İzmit was severely damaged.

The earthquake occurred along the western portion of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ).
The Anatolian Plate, which consists primarily of Turkey, is being pushed west about 2–2.5 cm
(0.8–1.0 in) a year, as it is squeezed between the Eurasian Plate to the north and the Arabian
Plate to the south. Major earthquakes in Turkey result mainly from slip along the NAFZ or
the East Anatolian Fault. The Izmit earthquake had a rupture length of 150 kilometers (93 mi)
extending from the city of Düzce all the way into the Sea of Marmara along the Gulf of İzmit.
Offsets along the rupture were as large as 5.7 meters (18.7 ft). From the timing of P-wave and S-
wave arrivals at seismometers there is strong evidence that the rupture propagated eastwards
from the epicentre at speeds in excess of the S-wave velocity, making this a supershear
earthquake.
 Damage from the Izmit earthquake

The earthquake was heavily felt in this industrialized and densely populated urban area of the
country, including oil refineries, several automotive plants, and the Turkish navy headquarters
and arsenal in Gölcük, increasing the severity of the loss of life and property. The earthquake
also caused considerable damage in Istanbul, about 70 kilometres (43 mi) away from the
earthquake's epicenter. An official Turkish estimate of October 19, 1999, placed the toll at
17,127 killed and 43,959 injured, but many sources suggest the actual figure may have been
closer to 45,000 dead and a similar number injured. Reports from September 1999 show that
120,000 poorly engineered houses were damaged beyond repair, 30,000 houses were heavily
damaged, 2,000 other buildings collapsed and 4,000 other buildings were heavily
damaged. 300,000 people were left homeless after the earthquake. There was extensive damage
to several bridges and other structures on the Trans-European Motorway (European route E80),
including 20 viaducts, 5 tunnels, and some overpasses. Damage ranged from spalling concrete to
total deck collapse.

The earthquake sparked a disastrous fire at the Tüpraş petroleum refinery. The fire began at a
state-owned tank farm and was initiated by naphtha that had sloshed out of a holding tank.
Breakage in water pipelines, results of the quake, nullified attempts at extinguishing the fire.
Aircraft were called in to douse the flames with foam. The fire spread over the next few days,
warranting the evacuation of the area within three miles of the refinery. The fire was declared
under control five days later after claiming at least seventeen tanks and untold amounts of
complex piping.The earthquake caused a tsunami in the Sea of Marmara that was about 2.5
meters high. The tsunami caused the deaths of 155 people.

A massive international response was mounted to assist in digging for survivors and assisting the
wounded and homeless. Rescue teams were dispatched within 24–48 hours of the disaster, and
the assistance to the survivors was channeled through NGOs and the Red Crescent and local
search and rescue organizations. The following table shows the breakdown of rescue teams by
country in the affected locations:
 Location Foreign Search and Rescue Teams From:

Gölcük, Kocaeli Hungary, Israel, France, South Korea, Belgium, Russia

Germany, Hungary, Israel, Poland,[13] United
Yalova
Kingdom, France, Japan, Austria, Romania, South Korea

Avcılar, Istanbul Germany, Greece

Russia, Hungary, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, United
İzmit, Kocaeli
States, Iceland, South Korea

Sakarya Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, Egypt

Düzce Poland,[13] United Kingdom

Bayrampasa, Istanbu
Italy
l

Kartal, Istanbul Azerbaijan

In total, rescue teams from twelve countries assisted in the rescue effort. Oil Spill Response
Limited were activated by BP to deploy from the United Kingdom to the Tupras Refinery where
their responders successfully contained the previously uncontrolled discharge of oil from the site
into the sea. The U.K announced an immediate grant of £50,000 to help the Turkish Red
Crescent, while the International Red Cross and Red Crescent pledged £4.5 million to help
victims. Blankets, medical supplies and food were flown from Stansted airport. Engineers
from Thames Water went to help restore water supplie. India also assisted by providing 32,000
tents and 2 million rupees to help in the reconstruction process. US President Bill
Clinton and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif later visited Istanbul and İzmit to examine
the level of destruction and meet with the survivors. The scientists recently analyzed seismic
recordings obtained close to the epicenter of the Izmit earthquake. They detected a highly
distinctive seismic signal that had never been previously observed, just before the fault ruptured.
More specifically, the recordings revealed a succession of repeated similar vibrations that lasted
for a period of 44 minutes. Although this ground motion was almost continuous, it was too faint
to be felt by the population. It continued right up until the earthquake, with steadily increasing
intensity. Analysis of the signal shows that it was caused by slow, discontinuous slip of the fault
in the region where the earthquake occurred. The signal shows that the fault began to slip at
depth 44 minutes before rupture occurred. The slip then continued, steadily accelerating, up until
the earthquake.
The Izmit earthquake thus began with the slow slip of the fault at the base of the brittle part of
Earth's crust, at a depth of around 15 kilometers. The signal detected by the researchers, a clear
seismic signature of slow slip, indicates the preparatory phase of the earthquake. Although this
was predicted by theory and by laboratory experiments, it had never been demonstrated until
now. Measuring instruments at GPS stations located near the fault were not sensitive enough to
measure the process directly, which partly explains why the signal went unnoticed at the time.
Only a very detailed analysis of the recordings has now made this possible. In addition, the
researchers were able to base their work on an exceptionally well-recorded earthquake whose
mechanism was more or less ideally suited to detecting a possible preparatory phase. According
to the scientists, this phase is likely to exist in other earthquakes, especially of the Izmit type.
Both its relatively long duration (44 minutes) and the fact that it emitted a highly distinctive
signal are encouraging factors. If new observations support the existence of this preparatory
phase in other earthquakes, it might at last become possible to predict some earthquakes tens of
minutes before the rupture of the fault.

Ararat is the largest and highest volcano in Turkey. Ararat is a stratovolcano. In the above image,
north is to the lower left. The border with Armenia is 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the summit
and is roughly along the left edge of the image. Ararat has not erupted in historic time. The most
recent eruption was probably in the last 10,000 years. The volcano is thought to be the resting
place of Noah's ark. The observation of vessel-shaped features in aerial photographs of Ararat
caused a stir in the late 1950s. Expeditions found the features to be landslides and lava flows.

The cause of volcanism in eastern Turkey has not been established. Some geologists argue that
the Arabian plate is being subducted beneath the Eurasian plate. However, the region lacks
moderate and deep earthquake activity common to most subduction zones. An alternative model
proposes renewed subduction of continental lithosphere. A third model proposes that volcanism
is related to shear along the contact of the two plates.
VI. References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey

http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/ararat

https://www.britannica.com/place/Turkey

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kocatepe_Camii_Ankara_edit.JPG

https://www.cheapinternationalflights.co.za/airlines/cheap-flights-to-istanbul/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Turkey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_%C4%B0zmit_earthquake

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110218083606.htm