The 1993 Bayburt Üzengili avalanche occurred on January 18, 1993, at around 07:45 local time (05:45 UTC) in Üzengili, a village of

Bayburt Province Bayburt Province ( tr, ) is a province of Turkey. Located in the Northeast Anatolia region of the country, the capital city is Bayburt, and with a population of 74,412 is the least-populous province in Turkey. Geography Bayburt is traversed by ...

in northeastern

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 ...

. It killed 59 people and injured 21, destroying 72 houses.

Location and terrain

Üzengili is a mountain village situated at an elevation of on the southern edge of the Soğanlı Mountains within the Eastern Blacksea Mountain Range ( tr, Doğu Karadeniz Dağları). It is north-east of

Bayburt Bayburt () is a city in northeast Turkey lying on the Çoruh River and is the provincial capital of Bayburt Province. According to the 2021 census the population is determined as around 82,274. Bayburt was once an important center on the ancient ...

close to the Bayburt-Trabzon provincial border. The top of the hill at the backside of the village is high Amsl. Unlike the northern slopes of the mountains in that region, which are densely covered with forest, the south facing part, where the village is located, has almost no trees. In 1990, the village had a population of 355.

Weather conditions

According to the data from the

Turkish State Meteorological Service Turkish State Meteorological Service ( tr, Devlet Meteoroloji İşleri Genel Müdürlüğü or DMİ) is the Turkish government bureau commissioned with producing the meteorological and climatic data pertaining to Turkey. It is responsible to the ...

, recorded at the

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...

in Bayburt, the area was covered by snow on January 16. As the temperature there was at 21:00 local time on that day, it dropped to the next day, resulting in formation of surface crusts. During the daytime of January 17, the temperature rose up and the snow pack melted at the surface. In the late hours of that day, the snow pack's surface formed a melt-freeze crust by refreezing with the dropping temperature. Freshly precipitated snow in the night of January 17 and in the early hours of the next day covered the melt-crust surface.

Disaster

The avalanche flowed downwards at an average slope angle of 17 degrees, and struck the village at around 07:45 local time. The snow masses destroyed a total of 72 houses and buried more than 70 people and a great number of animals. The natural disaster caused the life losses of 59 people and 650

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

. 21 people were injured at the incident. As a result of the disaster and the future avalanche risk at the location, Üzengili village, comprising 116 houses, has been relocated to another place in a safe zone. In 1997, the settlement counted 166 inhabitants.

Location and terrain

Weather conditions

Disaster

References

Further reading