The 1953 Yenice-Gönen earthquake occurred at 21:06 local time (19:06 UTC

Coordinated Universal Time

Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...

 on March 18, in the province of Çanakkale

Çanakkale Province

Çanakkale Province is a province of Turkey, located in the northwestern part of the country. It takes its name from the town of Çanakkale.Like Istanbul, Çanakkale province has a European and an Asian part. The European part is formed by the Gallipoli peninsula, while the Asian part is largely...

 and Balıkesir

Balikesir Province

Balıkesir Province is a province in midwestern Turkey, having coastlines on both the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean. Its adjacent provinces are Çanakkale to the west, İzmir to the southwest, Manisa to the south, Kütahya to the southeast, and Bursa to the east. The provincial capital is Balıkesir City...

 in the Marmara Region

Marmara Region

The Marmara Region , with a surface area of 67.000 km², is the smallest but most densely populated of the seven geographical regions of Turkey...

 at western Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. It had a magnitude 7.5 on the surface wave magnitude

Surface wave magnitude

The surface wave magnitude scale is one of the magnitude scales used in seismology to describe the size of an earthquake. It is based on measurements in Rayleigh surface waves that travel primarily along the uppermost layers of the earth...

 scale and a maximum felt intensity of IX (Violent) on the Mercalli intensity scale

Mercalli intensity scale

The Mercalli intensity scale is a seismic scale used for measuring the intensity of an earthquake. It measures the effects of an earthquake, and is distinct from the moment magnitude M_w usually reported for an earthquake , which is a measure of the energy released...

. It caused widespread damage, killing 1070 and causing damage that was estimated at US$3,570,000 repair value.

Tectonic setting

The tectonics of northern and eastern Turkey are dominated by the two strike-slip fault zones that accommodate the west to southwestward movement of the Anatolian Plate relative to the Eurasian Plate

Eurasian Plate

The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate which includes most of the continent of Eurasia , with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent, and the area east of the Chersky Range in East Siberia...

 and the Arabian Plate

Arabian Plate

The Arabian Plate is one of three tectonic plates which have been moving northward over millions of years and colliding with the Eurasian Plate...

 as it is effectively being squeezed out by convergence between them. The quake occurred along the Yenice–Gönen Fault, which is a southern extension of the North Anatolian Fault Zone.

Damage and casualties

The quake was a magnitude 7.3, therefore it was rather strong. The rupture killed at least 1070, 998 of those deaths in Yenice

Yenice, Çanakkale

Yenice is a town and district of Çanakkale Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 35,796 of which 6,903 live in the town of Yenice...

, with another 50 in Gönen

Gönen

Gönen is a district of Balıkesir Province of Turkey, located in the southern part of Marmara Sea. The town is mostly known for its therapeutic hot springs, leather processing and rice production. The mayor is Hüseyin Yakar .-Location:...

, 20 in Çan

Çan

Çan is a town and district of Çanakkale Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. According to the 2010 census, population of the district is 50,669 of which 28,808 live in the town of Çan. The district covers an area of , and the town lies at an elevation of .-External links:* * *...

, and 3 in Manyas

Manyas

Manyas is a town and district of Balıkesir Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. The population is 6501 . The mayor is Hasan Kahraman .-Pictures from Manyas Birds' Heaven:...

. The cost of repair was estimated at US$3,570,000.

Several thousand buildings were affected in the Can-Yenice-Gonen area. Damage of intensity VI occurred at Sakarya

Adapazari

Adapazarı is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of Sakarya Province. The province itself was originally named Adapazarı as well. Adapazarı is a part of the densely populated region of the country, known as the Marmara Region. As of 2010, the city has a population of 560,876 ...

 (Adapazari), Bursa, Edirne

Edirne

Edirne is a city in Eastern Thrace, the northwestern part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's new capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of the Edirne...

, Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

 and Izmir

Izmir

Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...

. The quake was felt throughout the Aegean Islands

Aegean Islands

The Aegean Islands are the group of islands in the Aegean Sea, with mainland Greece to the west and north and Turkey to the east; the island of Crete delimits the sea to the south, those of Rhodes, Karpathos and Kasos to the southeast...

 and in much of mainland Greece, with damage occurring as far away as Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

. Shaking was also recorded in Bulgaria.

Although officials predicted the earthquake would cause only 265 deaths, it multiplied with a death toll seven times the number as expected.

Characteristics

As a result of the earthquake, approximately 70 km (43.5 mi) of surface faulting occurred, with as much as 4.3 m (14.1 ft) of strike-slip (horizontal) faulting was observed by geologists east of Yenice.

Aftermath

The damage caused by this earthquake led to a new national reconstruction law in Turkey. In Greece the damage was severe enough that new building codes were introduced.

Future seismic hazard

Trenching and other fieldwork along the trace of the Yenice–Gönen Fault has identified three earthquakes before the 1953 event, about 1440 AD, between 620 and 1270 AD, and another event of uncertain age. These past events give a mean recurrence interval for large earthquakes of 660±160 years. This indicates that there is no significant current threat from ruptures along this fault zone.

Further reading

• Dewey, J.E. (1976) "Seismicity of Northern Anatolia" Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 66(3): pp. 843-868