The 1894 Istanbul earthquake occurred in the

Çınarcık Basin The Çınarcık Basin is a submarine tectonic basin located in the Sea of Marmara, in Turkey. Geography The Çınarcık basin gets its name from Çınarcık, a town and district of the Yalova Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. It is the ea ...

or Gulf of Izmit in the

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara, also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, is a small inland sea entirely within the borders of Turkey. It links the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea via the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, separating Turkey's E ...

on 10 July at 12:24pm. The earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 7.0. At least an estimated 1,349 people were killed in towns around the Gulf of Izmit such as

Yalova Yalova is a market-gardening town located in northwestern Turkey on the eastern coast of the Sea of Marmara. It is the seat of Yalova Province and Yalova District.Sapanca Sapanca is a municipality and district of Sakarya Province, Turkey. Its area is 173 km2, and its population is 46,847 (2024). It lies on the south bank of Lake Sapanca. The town's mayor is Nihat Arda Şahin ( CHP). Sapanca has recently beco ...

and

Adapazarı Adapazarı () is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, district of Sakarya Province, Turkey. Its area is 324 km2, and its population 281,489 (2022). It covers the central and northern part of the agglomeration of Adapazarı and t ...

, and in

Ottoman Constantinople Neolithic artifacts, uncovered by archeologists at the beginning of the 21st century, indicate that Istanbul's historic peninsula was settled as far back as the 6th millennium BCE. That early settlement, important in the spread of the Neolithi ...

(present day

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

). The main shock caused a tsunami high.

Background

The

is a

pull-apart basin In geology, a basin is a region where subsidence generates accommodation space for the deposition of sediments. A pull-apart basin is a structural basin where two overlapping (en echelon) strike-slip faults or a fault bend create an area of crust ...

formed at a releasing bend in the

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 ...

, a right-lateral

strike-slip fault 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 ...

. This local zone of extension occurs where this transform boundary between the

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 ...

and the Eurasian plate steps northwards to the west of Izmit from the Izmit Fault to the Ganos Fault. The pattern of faults within the Sea of Marmara basin is complex but near Istanbul there is a single main fault segment with a sharp bend. To the west, the fault trends west–east and is pure strike-slip in type. To the east, the fault is NW–SE trending and show evidence of both normal and strike-slip motion. Movement on the Gulf of Izmit section of the fault, which bounds the Çınarcık Basin, is the most likely cause of the 1894 event. Other possible causes are movement on the Princes' Islands segment of the fault (to the west of the Gulf of Izmit), and movement on a

normal fault 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 ...

in the Çinarcik basin, separate from the North Anatolian Fault.

Damage

The earthquake is estimated to have generated shaking with a modified Mercalli intensity of 9 at

Sapanca Sapanca is a municipality and district of Sakarya Province, Turkey. Its area is 173 km2, and its population is 46,847 (2024). It lies on the south bank of Lake Sapanca. The town's mayor is Nihat Arda Şahin ( CHP). Sapanca has recently beco ...

, 8.5 at

Yalova Yalova is a market-gardening town located in northwestern Turkey on the eastern coast of the Sea of Marmara. It is the seat of Yalova Province and Yalova District.Adapazarı Adapazarı () is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, district of Sakarya Province, Turkey. Its area is 324 km2, and its population 281,489 (2022). It covers the central and northern part of the agglomeration of Adapazarı and t ...

Büyükçekmece Büyükçekmece, historically Athyras (Greek: Αθύρας) is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 173 km2, and its population is 277,181 (2022). It is on the Sea of Marmara coast of the European side, west o ...

Gebze Gebze (), formerly known as Libyssa, is a municipality and district of Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Its area is 418 km2, and its population is 407,019 (2022). It is situated 65 km (30 mi) southeast of Istanbul, on the Gulf of Izmit, ...

Kartal Kartal () is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 38 km2, and its population is 483,418 (2022). It is located on the Asian side of the city, on the coast of the Marmara Sea between Maltepe and Pendik. De ...

, Küçükçekmece and on the

Princes' Islands The Princes' Islands (; the word "princes" is plural, because the name means "Islands of the Princes", , ''Pringiponisia''), officially just Adalar (); alternatively the Princes' Archipelago; is an archipelago off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey, ...

. The quake killed 990 people in the area around Yalova and Sapanca, 83 in

and 276 in Istanbul.

Response

Numerous civil society organisations in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

, capital of the nascent

Kingdom of Serbia The Kingdom of Serbia was a country located in the Balkans which was created when the ruler of the Principality of Serbia, Milan I of Serbia, Milan I, was proclaimed king in 1882. Since 1817, the Principality was ruled by the Obrenović dynast ...

, organized benefit events to collect aid for victims of the catastrophe.

Background

Damage

Response

See also

References

Further reading