Turkiye Earthquakes (8 marker)

Question 1

When did the earthquake occur?

Answer 1

6 Feb 2023

Question 2

What was it caused by?

(physical causes)

Answer 2

the Arabian plate moving northwards and grinding against the Anatolian plate

Question 3

How many died in the turkish earthquake

Answer 3

50,000

Question 4

What may have exacerbated the impact of the turkish earthquakes?

Answer 4

“soft story structures” which the government built to help deal with the influx of syrian refugees

Question 5

Preparedness (or lack of)

Answer 5

17000 deaths occured in the 1999 izmit earthquake. 85-90% of the collapsed and damaged buildings had soft stories in them. Turkey was fully aware of the soft storey buildings being an issue well before the recent earthquake.

Question 6

How could the situation have been avoided?

Answer 6

In an ideal scenario, the columns can be reinforced.

Bolts can be implemented into the ground floor’s walls to help them withstand the tremors.

The walls of the building could also be reinforced.

Question 7

Evaluations to the potential solutions

Answer 7

6.7 million residential buildings across Turkey require structural retrofitting at an estimated cost of £465 billion dollars.
Turkiye does not have the money to achieve this, and are already spending lots on other projects (such as housing syrians).
4% of these buildings have been reinforced by 2021.