The 1993 Bayburt Üzengili avalanche occurred on January 18, 1993, at around 07:45 local time (05:45

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 ...

) in Üzengili, a village of

Bayburt Province Bayburt Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province of Turkey. Located in the Northeast Anatolia Region (statistical), Northeast Anatolia region of the country, the capital city is Bayburt. Its area is 3,746 km2, and its population is 84,24 ...

in northeastern

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 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 (). It is north-east of

Bayburt Bayburt () is a city in northeast Turkey lying on the Çoruh River. It is the seat of Bayburt Province and Bayburt District. 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 () is the Turkish government bureau commissioned with producing the meteorological and climatic data pertaining to Turkey. It is responsible to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. History The first m ...

, recorded at the

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasting, weather forecasts and to study the weather and clima ...

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 Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

. 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