1999 MARMARA EARTHQUAKES

The 17 August 1999 Izmit earthquake (Ms 7.4) struck the eastern Marmara region at 03.02 a.m. (local time) and resulted in at least 18,000 deaths (official count), more than 25,000 injuries, and collapse or heavy damage of about 75,000 buildings in the cities of Adapazarı, Izmit, Yalova, Istanbul, and Bolu, all located within or adjacent to the rupture zone.

The 17 August 1999 earthquake was the seventh in a sequence of westward-migrating earthquakes along the North Anatolian fault. The earthquake is associated with a 145-km-long surface rupture that extends from southwest of Düzce in the east to west of Hersek delta in the west and maximum right-lateral offset was recorded as 5.2 m (Barka et al., 2002).

The 12 November 1999 earthquake (M 7.1) occurred on the Düzce fault segment, a splay of the North Anatolian fault in the Bolu basin, approximately three months after the 17 August 1999 (M 7.4) earthquake, resulted in approximately 900 deaths and 3000 injuries. The surface rupture was 40 km long, and the maximum right-lateral offset was ~5 m (Akyuz et al., 2002).

A special issue was published in Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America for 1999 Marmara Earthquakes .

BSSA Volume 92 · Number 1 · February 2002 :
http://www.seismosoc.org/Publications/BSSA_html/bssa_92-1/ssa_toc_92-1.html

Parsons, 2000