August 23, 1999

Our field team of Mehmet Celebi (earthquake engineer), Tom Holzer (liquefaction and ground failure expert), Heidi Stenner, and Tom Fumal (both paleoseismologists and earthquake geologists) arrived in Turkey on Friday. Our first report from the geologic team came via the telephone. So far everything is going well, with a coordinated effort between the Turkish geologists, USGS, and the Southern California earthquake center. They have been working long hours, returning to Istanbul each evening near midnight. The geologists' goal is to establish the overall length of the rupture, then divide into smaller groups for detailed mapping.