Magnitude 6.4 EASTERN TURKEY
2003 May 01 00:27:04 UTC
Preliminary Earthquake Report
U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver
Magnitude | 6.4 | ||
Date-Time |
Thursday, May 01, 2003 at 00:27:04 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal Time Thursday, May 01, 2003 at 03:27:04 AM local time at epicenter |
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Location | 39.00N 40.44E | ||
Depth | 10.0 kilometers | ||
Region | EASTERN TURKEY | ||
Reference |
15 km (10 miles) NNW of Bingol, Turkey 95 km (60 miles) WNW of Mus, Turkey 110 km (70 miles) ENE of Elazig, Turkey 665 km (410 miles) E of ANKARA, Turkey |
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Location Quality | Error estimate: horizontal +/- 7.1 km; depth fixed by location program | ||
Location Quality Parameters |
Nst=132, Nph=132, Dmin=122.2 km, Rmss=1.09 sec, Erho=7.1 km, Erzz=0 km, Gp=50.9 degrees | ||
Source | USGS NEIC (WDCS-D) | ||
Remarks | At least 150 people killed, more than 1,000 injured and extensive damage in the Bingol area. Felt strongly in much of eastern Turkey. |
Tectonic Setting
Turkey is a tectonically active region that experiences frequent
destructive earthquakes. At a large scale, the tectonics of the region
near the recent earthquake are controlled by the collision of the
Arabian
Plate and the Eurasian Plate. At a more detailed level, the tectonics
become quite complicated. A large piece of continental crust almost the
size of Turkey, called the Anatolian block, is being squeezed to the
west. The block is bounded to the north by the North Anatolian Fault
and to the south-east by the East Anatolian fault.
The recent earthquake occurred near the east end of the East Anatolian
fault. The faulting in the region is very complicated and extensive.
This earthquake may have been the result of rupture on
the northeast trending East Anatolian Fault or it may have
occurred on the northwest trending Bingol Karakocan fault zone.
This earthquake occurred 70 km southeast of a magnitude 6.1 earthquake that killed one person and injured several in the Pulumar area on January 27, 2003. These earthquakes are a reminder of the many deadly earthquakes that Turkey has suffered in the recent past. The devastating Kocaeli (Izmit) earthquake of 1999 (M = 7.6) broke a section of the North Anatolian Fault 1,500 km to the west of the recent quake and killed 17,000 people, injured 50,0000, and left 500,000 homeless. The recent earthquake (May 1, 2003) occurred within or near the source region of the M = 6.6 earthquake of March 13, 1992, which killed hundreds of people and left thousands homeless in Erzincan. Another even larger earthquake struck Erzincan in 1939. This magnitude 8.0 earthquake killed an estimated 33,000 people. Erzincan is about 120 km (75 miles) to the northwest of the epicenter of today's earthquake. |
NB:
The region name is an automatically generated name
from the Flinn-Engdahl (F-E) seismic and geographical regionalization scheme.
The boundaries of
these regions are defined at one-degree intervals and therefore differ from
irregular political boundaries.
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