The 1949 Karlıova earthquake occurred at 18:44

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

on 17 August with an

epicenter The epicenter (), epicentre, or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Determination The primary purpose of a ...

near

Karlıova Karlıova () is a town and seat of the Karlıova District in Bingöl Province of Turkey. The mayor is Veysi Bingöl ( AKP). The town had a population of 9,016 in 2021 and is populated by Kurds. The town is divided into the neighborhoods of Kale, ...

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 ...

Eastern Anatolia Region The Eastern Anatolia region () is a geographical region of Turkey. The most populous province in the region is Van Province. Other populous provinces are Malatya, Erzurum and Elazığ. It is bordered by the Black Sea Region and Georgia in th ...

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 ...

. It had an estimated magnitude of 6.7, a maximum felt intensity of X (''Extreme'') on the

Mercalli intensity scale The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS) measures the effects of an earthquake at a given location. This is in contrast with the seismic magnitude usually reported for an earthquake. Magnitude scales measure the inherent force or ...

, and caused 320–450 casualties and destroyed 3,500 buildings.

Tectonic setting

The Karlıova region is the location of the

triple junction A triple junction is the point where the boundaries of three tectonic plates meet. At the triple junction each of the three boundaries will be one of three types – a ridge (R), trench (T) or transform fault (F) – and triple junctions can be ...

between the boundaries of the Eurasian plate,

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 Arabian plate, 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 ...

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 ...

and the Mus

fold and thrust belt A fold and thrust belt is a series of mountainous foothills adjacent to an orogenic belt, which forms due to contractional tectonics. Fold and thrust belts commonly form in the forelands adjacent to major orogens as deformation propagates outwards ...

, which passes to the east into the

Zagros fold and thrust belt The Zagros fold and thrust belt (Zagros FTB) is an approximately long zone of deformed crustal rocks, formed in the foreland of the collision between the Arabian plate and the Eurasian plate. It is host to one of the world's largest petroleum ...

. The earthquake occurred at the eastern end of the North Anatolian Fault.

Characteristics

The seismic moment estimated for this earthquake is 3.5E+26, equivalent to a magnitude of 7.1 on the

moment magnitude scale 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 ...

. The estimated fault length involved is 63 km. The earthquake ruptured the easternmost part of the Yedisu segment (FS3, also known as the Elamalı segment) and most of the Ilıpınar segment (FS2 & FS1), although it remains unclear whether the rupture continued as far as Karlıova itself.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Karliova 1949 1949 Karliova 1949 earthquakes 1949 in Turkey History of Bingöl Province August 1949 in Asia 1949 disasters in Turkey

Tectonic setting

Characteristics

See also

References

External links