1999 Izmit, Turkey Earthquake

Encyclopedia : 1 : 19 : 199 : 1999 Izmit, Turkey Earthquake

The Izmit earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 which lasted for 45 seconds killed over 17,000 in northwestern Turkey on 17 August 1999.

The earthquake had a rupture length of 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the city of Düzce to all the way into the Sea of Marmara along the Gulf of İzmit. Movement along the rupture was as large as 5.7 meters (18.7 ft). (Reilinger, et al., 2000)

This earthquake occurred in the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ). The Anatolian Plate which consists primarily of Turkey is being pushed west about 2-2.5 cm/yr (0.8-1.0 in), as it is squeezed between the Eurasian Plate on the north, and both the African Plate and the Arabian Plate on the south. Most of the large earthquakes result as slip occurs along the NAFZ or Eastern Anatolian Fault.

The official number of casualties is about 17,000 although real numbers are thought to be above 35,000. The rupture passed through major cities that are among the most industrialized and urban areas of the country, including oil refineries, several car companies and navy headquarters and arsenal in Golcuk thus increasing the severity of the life and property loss.

This quake was predicted using the new discovery Earthquake storms.

References

PMID 10968782
PMID 11436816
PMID 15730063

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.