Izmit, Turkey Earthquake
August 17, 1999 (M7.4)
Tuesday, 17 August 1999. A massive earthquake struck northwest Turkey. Latitude 41.81ºN and longitude 30.08ºE, magnitude estimated 7.4. It struck at the worst possible time, 3am local time, the early hours of the morning when most people are asleep in bed.
The North Anatolian fault wedged between two huge tectonic plates, Eurasia and Africa. As the plates grind against each other, they put pressure on the North Anatolian fault, which periodically ruptures and thus causing the earthquake to happen.
The earthquake lasted for 37seconds. It caused large area of the linear of the earth's surface to rift and fragment. It killed around 17 thousand people, 44,000 people injured and leaving approximately half a million people homeless. There were nearly 300,000 homes either damaged or collapsed and more than 40,000 business premises similarly affected .
Due to the lack of communications and heavy damage on the major highway connecting Istanbul to Ankara, rescue operations were delayed and humanitarian aid were not able to transport to the victims.
Turkey’s Prime Minister's has set up a "crisis committee" headed by Premier Aijieweite. President Demileier and Premier Aijieweite had gone respectively to the Kejiaaili for inspection. Doctors and nurses in every city had dispatched to disaster area to treat the victims.
In Turkey, the foundations of the houses is very weak, it is one of the problem that many people die in the earthquake. In order to reduce the earthquake’s impact, Turkey government should build stronger houses that is resistant to the earthquake. Government should also teach the Turkish more knowledge about the earthquake, so that people would know how to protect themselves during an earthquake. Geographer in Turkey needs to be more observant and informed the people before earthquake happens so that people are able to be prepared for the earthquake.
