Another earthquake ~ Turkey, 5.9 magnitude, kills 51

[Emit]

Strong earthquake slams eastern Turkey, kills 51

OKCULAR, Turkey – A strong, pre-dawn earthquake struck eastern Turkey on Monday, killing 51 people as it knocked down stone and mud-brick houses and minarets in at least six villages, the government said.

The earthquake surprised many residents as they slept, crumpling buildings into piles of rubble. Panicked survivors fled into the narrow village streets, some climbing out of windows, as more than 50 aftershocks measuring up to 5.5 and 5.3 magnitude rattled the region.

The Kandilli seismology center said the 6.0-magnitude quake hit at 4:32 a.m. (0232 GMT, 9 p.m. EST Sunday) near the village of Basyurt in a remote, sparsely populated area of Elazig province. The region is 340 miles (550 kilometers) east of Ankara, the capital.

The U.S. Geological Survey listed the quake at 5.9 magnitude.

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Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, much of which lies on top of two main fault lines. In 1999, two powerful earthquakes struck northwestern Turkey, killing about 18,000 people.

~snip~

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100308/ap_on_re_eu/eu_turkey_earthquake

[existentialist]

1. Not wanting to minimize the human suffering,

it remains worth noting that the Turkey earthquake is about 1/30 of the force of the recent quake in Haiti, and about 1/30,000 of the the force of the recent quake in Chile.

The difference between the casualties in Haiti and Chile underscored the importance of earth quake planning in building codes, and the reports coming from Turkey reemphasize the point.

And, closer to home, if the New Madrid Fault has a major quake before we do some rebuilding in places like Memphis, and St. Louis, and East St. Louis, WE will be reemphasizing the point again at our great cost and suffering.

[DCKit]

2. It also has much to do with the type of strata underlying the region.

Chile has much rock, Port au Prince is almost all sediment which can actually magnify the waves.

However, adobe and bricks will never do well in earthquakes. But how do you force poor people to build with steel reinforced concrete when cheaper building materials are readily available?

[MineralMan]

3. There were a couple of moderate earthquakes in Turkey

when I was stationed there in 1967-8. A notable thing I saw there was an 6-story apartment building being constructed. They were mixing concrete for the floor pours, using the dirt dug out of the excavation instead of good gravel. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. This was just off the USAF base, in a city of maybe 100,000 people. No controls at all.

Turkey has lots of building collapses, even in moderate quakes, due to their lousy construction practices.