2003 Bingöl Earthquake
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An earthquake hit eastern
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
with a
moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mwg, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. was defined in a 1979 paper ...
of 6.4 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (''Violent'') on 1 May 2003 at . The epicenter of this
strike-slip In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
earthquake was in
Bingöl Province Bingöl Province (; ; ; ) is a province of Turkey. The province was known as Çapakçur Province () before 1945 when it was renamed as Bingöl Province. Its area is 8,003 km2, and its population is 282,556 (2022). The province encompasses 11 ...
, 15 km north of the city of
Bingöl Bingöl (; ; ), known as Çapakçur before 1944, is a city in Turkey. It is the seat of Bingöl Province and Bingöl District,Anatolian Plate The Anatolian plate is a continental tectonic plate lying under Asiatic part of Turkey, known as Anatolia. Most of the country of Turkey is located on the Anatolian plate. The plate is separated from the Eurasian plate and the Arabian plate ...
, which is being forced westwards by the collision between the Arabian plate and the Eurasian plate. This westward movement is accommodated by two large strike-slip fault zones, the west–east trending right lateral
North Anatolian Fault The North Anatolian Fault (NAF; ) is an active right-lateral strike-slip fault in northern Anatolia, and is the transform boundary between the Eurasian plate and the Anatolian sub-plate. The fault extends westward from a junction with the Ea ...
in the north of the country and the SW-NE trending left lateral
East Anatolian Fault The East Anatolian Fault (EAF; ) is a ~700 km long major strike-slip fault zone running from eastern to south-central Turkey. It forms the transform type tectonic boundary between the Anatolian sub-plate and the northward-moving Arabian ...
towards the south-east. Movement on these two faults have been responsible for many large and damaging earthquakes historically.


Earthquake

The earthquake occurred on May 1, 2003, with a depth of 15 km (9.3 mi). It was a strike-slip event, lasting about 17 seconds with a magnitude of 6.4. It occurred at 3:27 am local time. The strike-slip fault responsible was not the East Anatolian Fault; it ruptured a right-lateral strike-slip fault perpendicular to the East Anatolian Fault. Numerous seismically induced ground deformations, displacements and ruptures were observed in the epicentral area. According to these observations, a few surface ruptures were located between the villages of Hanoçayırı and Sudüğünü, with a vertical drop of observed at a nearby field. By 8 May, there were over 6,700 aftershocks, including 1,962 on the day of the mainshock.


Damage

The earthquake damaged hundreds of buildings made of reinforced concrete and masonry. Many school buildings constructed within the last six years were heavily damaged. A total of 177 people were killed; 84 of the fatalities occurred when a dormitory block collapsed in a boarding school. A total 8,417 houses being damaged, of which 305 collapsed, 3,000 heavily damaged, 2,566 moderately damaged, and 2,546 slightly damaged. In the city of Bingöl, 6,570 buildings were damaged, 570 of them seriously, including 90% of schools, four of which collapsed; the school where the dormitory block collapsed was a 5-story building. Three hospitals in the city were also damaged. The majority of destroyed or seriously damaged buildings were constructed using unreinforced
concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...
, which are prone to collapsing in strong tremors.


International search and rescue response


Offers of Assistance

Greece offered search and rescue assistance, but the Turkish government declined, citing that the scale of destruction was manageable with national resources. Turkey did not request or accept foreign SAR teams for the emergency phase.


International Readiness

Teams from
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, Britain,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
,
Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
,
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
, and other countries were on standby and available, but their assistance was not requested by Turkey.


International red cross and red crescent

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) sent a psychosocial delegate and a professional to support the Turkish Red Crescent’s psychosocial team. The
American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...
contributed 14,000 kitchen utensils for victims.


Financial and Material Support

The IFRC called for member donations of 2,384,000
Swiss francs The Swiss franc, or simply the franc, is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) i ...
(about US$1.77 million) to assist emergency relief operations in Bingöl.


See also

* List of earthquakes in 2003 *
List of earthquakes in Turkey Turkey has had many earthquakes. This list includes any notable historical earthquakes that have epicenters within the current boundaries of Turkey, or which caused significant effects in this area. Overall, the population in major cities like ...


References


Further reading

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bingol 2003 2003 disasters in Turkey 2003 Bingöl 2003 earthquakes 2003 in Turkey History of Bingöl Province May 2003 in Turkey