The 1939 Erzincan earthquake struck eastern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

at with a moment magnitude of 7.8 and a maximum

Mercalli The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scales, seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthq ...

intensity of XII (''Extreme''). It was the second most powerful earthquake recorded in Turkey, after the

1668 North Anatolia earthquake Northern Anatolia was struck by a large earthquake on 17 August 1668 in the late morning. It had an estimated magnitude in the range 7.8–8.0 and the maximum felt intensity was IX on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale. The epicenter of the ea ...

. This was one of the largest in a sequence of violent shocks to affect Turkey along the

North Anatolian Fault The North Anatolian Fault (NAF) ( tr, Kuzey Anadolu Fay Hattı) is an active right-lateral strike-slip fault in northern Anatolia, and is the transform boundary between the Eurasian Plate and the Anatolian Plate. The fault extends westward fro ...

between 1939 and

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

. Surface rupturing, with a horizontal displacement of up to 3.7 meters, occurred in a 360 km long segment of the North Anatolian Fault Zone. The earthquake was the most severe natural loss of life in Turkey in the 20th century, with 32,968 dead, and some 100,000 injured.

Preface

The North Anatolian Fault in Asia Minor is a major

transform fault boundary A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subductio ...

where the Eurasian Plate slides past the smaller Anatolian Microplate. Running for over 1,600 km, the fault stretches from Eastern Turkey to the Sea of Marmara. The North Anatolian fault has been, and remains very active.

Erzincan Erzincan (; ku, Erzîngan), historically Yerznka ( hy, Երզնկա), is the capital of Erzincan Province in Eastern Turkey. Nearby cities include Erzurum, Sivas, Tunceli, Bingöl, Elazığ, Malatya, Gümüşhane, Bayburt, and Giresun. The ...

has been destroyed by earthquakes at least 11 times since 1,000 AD. Between 1942 and 1967, there were six major earthquakes along the same fault, with three above 7 .

Earthquake

With an epicenter near the city of Erzincan, the

earthquake rupture In seismology, an earthquake rupture is the extent of slip that occurs during an earthquake in the Earth's crust. Earthquakes occur for many reasons that include: landslides, movement of magma in a volcano, the formation of a new fault, or, mos ...

propagated westwards for a length of 400 km. Surface ruptures are still visible to this day. Up to 360 km of surface rupture was formed. An average surface displacement of between 2.3 meters and 8.8 meters was calculated. Vertical displacements measured 0.5–2.0 meters. The maximum horizontal slip was 10.5 meters. The shaking lasted for 52 seconds. It resulted in a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

with heights of that hit the Black sea coast. Coulomb stress transfer from the 1939 earthquake promoted westward-progressing ruptures along the North Anatolian Fault. Ten earthquakes greater than magnitude 6.7 have ruptured a 1,000 km portion of the fault since 1939.

Damage

The earthquake seriously damaged some 116,720 buildings. Occurring in winter, it was difficult for aid to reach the affected areas. Initially, the death toll was about 8,000 people. The next day on 27 December, it was reported that it had risen to 20,000. During the same day, the temperature fell to . An emergency rescue operation began. By January 5, almost 33,000 had died due to the earthquake and due to low temperatures, blizzard conditions and floods.

Aftermath

The total destruction of the earthquake prompted Turkey to adopt seismic building regulations. So extensive was the damage to the city of

that its old site was entirely abandoned and a new settlement was founded a little further to the north.

References

External links

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33 bin kişinin can verdiği Erzincan Depremi'nin acısı 82 yıldır dinmiyor
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Anadolu Agency Anadolu Agency ( tr, Anadolu Ajansı, ; abbreviated AA) is a state-run news agency headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. History The Anadolu Agency was founded in 1920 during the Turkish War of Independence by the order of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. As ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erzincan 1939 1939 Erzincan 1930s tsunamis 1939 in Turkey 1939 earthquakes History of Erzincan Province Tsunamis in Turkey December 1939 events Strike-slip earthquakes