1999 Izmit earthquake
Encyclopedia
The 1999 İzmit
earthquake
(also known as the Kocaeli
or Gölcük earthquake) was a 7.6 magnitude
earthquake that struck northwestern Turkey
on August 17, 1999, at about 3:02am local time. The event lasted for 37 seconds, killing around 17,000 people and leaving approximately half a million people homeless. Even though official sources consider casualties 17,000 people, non-official sources consider the casualties 35,000 people. The nearby city of Izmit
was very badly damaged.
houses were damaged beyond repair, 50,000 houses were heavily damaged, 2,000 other buildings collapsed and 4,000 other buildings were heavily damaged. 600,000 people were left homeless after the 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 caused a subsequent fire due to a collapse of a tower in a Tüpraş
oil refinery. The refinery had over 700,000 tons of oil stored. It took several days to get the fire under control. The earthquake also caused considerable damage in Istanbul
, about 70 kilometres (43.5 mi) away from the earthquake's epicenter.
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) (Reilinger, et al., 2000).
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
on the north, and both the African Plate
and the Arabian Plate
on the south. Major earthquakes in Turkey result from slips along the NAFZ or the Eastern Anatolian Fault.
The earthquake caused a tsunami
in the Sea of Marmara that was about 3 meters high.
Destruction in Istanbul
mainly happened in the Avcılar
district, which is on the fault line extending across the Marmara Sea. Avcılar was built on ground mainly composed of sea soil at the bottom level, which makes this district vulnerable to any earthquake. International aid was sent out from various countries. This aid included search teams, tents, helicopters, and medical supplies, among other items.
The following table shows the breakdown of rescue teams by country in the affected locations:
Search and Rescue Effort as of August 19, 1999. Source: USAID
In total, rescue teams from twelve countries assisted in the rescue effort.
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 supplies. India also assisted by providing 32,000 tents and 2 million rupees to help in the reconstruction process.
US President Bill Clinton
and Pakistan
i Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif
later visited Istanbul
and İzmit to examine the level of destruction and meet with the survivors.
Izmit
İzmit is a city in Turkey, administrative center of Kocaeli Province as well as the Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality. It is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea of Marmara, about east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia. The city center has a population of 294.875...
earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
(also known as the Kocaeli
Izmit
İzmit is a city in Turkey, administrative center of Kocaeli Province as well as the Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality. It is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea of Marmara, about east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia. The city center has a population of 294.875...
or Gölcük earthquake) was a 7.6 magnitude
Moment magnitude scale
The moment magnitude scale is used by seismologists to measure the size of earthquakes in terms of the energy released. The magnitude is based on the seismic moment of the earthquake, which is equal to the rigidity of the Earth multiplied by the average amount of slip on the fault and the size of...
earthquake that struck northwestern 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...
on August 17, 1999, at about 3:02am local time. The event lasted for 37 seconds, killing around 17,000 people and leaving approximately half a million people homeless. Even though official sources consider casualties 17,000 people, non-official sources consider the casualties 35,000 people. The nearby city of Izmit
Izmit
İzmit is a city in Turkey, administrative center of Kocaeli Province as well as the Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality. It is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea of Marmara, about east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia. The city center has a population of 294.875...
was very badly damaged.
Damage and casualties in Turkey
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 engineeredEarthquake engineering
Earthquake engineering is the scientific field concerned with protecting society, the natural and the man-made environment from earthquakes by limiting the seismic risk to socio-economically acceptable levels...
houses were damaged beyond repair, 50,000 houses were heavily damaged, 2,000 other buildings collapsed and 4,000 other buildings were heavily damaged. 600,000 people were left homeless after the 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
Turkish Navy
The Turkish Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the Turkish Armed Forces.- Ottoman fleet after Mudros :Following the demise of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I, on November 3, 1918, the fleet commander of the Ottoman Navy, Liva Amiral Arif Pasha, ordered all flags to be...
headquarters and arsenal in Gölcük
Gölcük Naval Base
Gölcük Naval Base is the main base of the Turkish Navy on the east coast of the Sea of Marmara in Gölcük, Kocaeli. It is the principal base for logistic support with various facilities stretched over of land....
, increasing the severity of the loss of life and property. The earthquake caused a subsequent fire due to a collapse of a tower in a Tüpraş
TÜPRAS
Tüpraş is Turkey’s largest petrochemical company, with 28.1 mn ton crude processing capacity a petrochemical facility, a retail affiliate and a Tanker Operation.-Introduction:...
oil refinery. The refinery had over 700,000 tons of oil stored. It took several days to get the fire under control. The earthquake also caused considerable damage in 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...
, about 70 kilometres (43.5 mi) away from the earthquake's epicenter.
Geology
The Izmit earthquake had a rupture length of 150 kilometres (93.2 mi) extending from the city of DüzceDüzce
Düzce is the capital city of Düzce Province in Turkey. The mayor is İsmail Bayram . The population is 125,240 which is an increase from 61.878 in 1990.- Overview :...
all the way into the Sea of Marmara
Sea of Marmara
The Sea of Marmara , also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, and in the context of classical antiquity as the Propontis , is the inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, thus separating Turkey's Asian and European parts. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Black...
along the Gulf of İzmit. Offsets along the rupture were as large as 5.7 meters (18.7 ft) (Reilinger, et al., 2000).
The earthquake occurred along the western portion of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ). The Anatolian Plate
Anatolian Plate
The Anatolian Plate is a continental tectonic plate consisting primarily of the country of Turkey.The easterly side is a boundary with the Arabian Plate, the East Anatolian Fault, a left lateral transform fault....
, 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
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...
on the north, and both the African Plate
African Plate
The African Plate is a tectonic plate which includes the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges.-Boundaries:...
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...
on the south. Major earthquakes in Turkey result from slips along the NAFZ or the Eastern Anatolian Fault.
The earthquake caused a tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
in the Sea of Marmara that was about 3 meters high.
Destruction in 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...
mainly happened in the Avcılar
Avcilar
Avcılar is a district of Istanbul, Turkey, out of town on the European side of the city, just to the west of the Küçükçekmece inlet of the Sea of Marmara.-History:The Marmara coast road bridges the mouth of the inlet, always an important route in wartime...
district, which is on the fault line extending across the Marmara Sea. Avcılar was built on ground mainly composed of sea soil at the bottom level, which makes this district vulnerable to any earthquake. International aid was sent out from various countries. This aid included search teams, tents, helicopters, and medical supplies, among other items.
International response
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.The following table shows the breakdown of rescue teams by country in the affected locations:
| Location | Search and Rescue Teams From: |
|---|---|
| Gölcük | Hungary, Israel, France, South Korea |
| Yalova | Germany, Hungary, Israel, United Kingdom, France, Austria, Romania, South Korea |
| Avcılar (Istanbul) | Germany, Greece |
| İzmit (Kocaeli) | Russia, Hungary, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, USA, Iceland ICE-SAR ICE-SAR is a special unit within the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue. It is one of less than 15 teams worldwide that has received IEC Classification from INSARAG under the United Nations umbrella.... , South Korea |
| Sakarya | Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, Egypt |
| Düzce | United Kingdom |
| Bayrampasa (Istanbul) | Italy |
| Kartal (Istanbul) | Azerbaijan |
Search and Rescue Effort as of August 19, 1999. Source: USAID
In total, rescue teams from twelve countries assisted in the rescue effort.
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
London Stansted Airport
-Cargo:-Statistics:-Infrastructure:-Terminal and satellite buildings:Stansted is the newest passenger airport of all the main London airports. The terminal is an oblong glass building, and is separated in to three areas: Check-in concourse, arrivals and departures...
airport. Engineers from Thames Water went to help restore water supplies. India also assisted by providing 32,000 tents and 2 million rupees to help in the reconstruction process.
US President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Pakistan
The Prime Minister of Pakistan , is the Head of Government of Pakistan who is designated to exercise as the country's Chief Executive. By the Constitution of Pakistan, Pakistan has the parliamentary democratic system of government...
Nawaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif
Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...
later visited 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 İzmit to examine the level of destruction and meet with the survivors.
See also
- North Anatolian FaultNorth Anatolian FaultThe North Anatolian Fault is a major active right lateral-moving strike-slip fault in northern Anatolia which runs along the transform boundary between the Eurasian Plate and the Anatolian Plate. The fault extends westward from a junction with the East Anatolian Fault at the Karliova Triple...
- Greek–Turkish earthquake diplomacy