February 6, 2025 marks the two-year anniversary of the devastating M7.8 and M7.6 earthquakes along the Southern part of the Eastern Anatolian Fault Zone. The ruptured fault segments, exceeding 300 km in total length, had been silent since 1511. The impacts of these two sequential earthquakes were catastrophic: more than 50,000 people lost their lives in eleven provinces, with 240,000 buildings collapsed or severely damaged. Over 500 strong motion stations recorded the ground motions.
Earthquake Spectra announced a special collection, “Impact of the February 6, 2023 M7.8 and M7.6 Earthquakes in Türkiye on the Built Environment, and Implications on Seismic Hazard,” following these earthquakes to document lessons learned from the impacts and recovery. Currently, 31 papers are available to EERI members and Spectra subscribers in the collection here, with a few additional publications anticipated in the near future.
The published papers can be categorized as follows:
- Ground motion characteristics and damage potential (6 papers)
- Post-earthquake reconnaissance, response, urban resilience (5 papers)
- Geotechnical observations, ground deformations, soil liquefaction (5 papers)
- Damage to reinforced concrete and steel building structures (4 papers)
- Damage to historical masonry structures (2 papers)
- Damage to road bridges (2 papers)
- Damage to earth dams, hydraulic structures, and water systems (3 papers)
- Seismic performance of hospitals (2 papers)
- Damage assessment via neural networks and satellite imagery (2 papers)
The extensive scope of this collection reflects the massive research effort dedicated to understanding these earthquakes, including substantial multi-disciplinary data collection. Many of these findings have already reached wider audiences through Editor's Choice highlights, special programming at EERI meetings, LFE reports, and webinars—visit the Learning From Earthquakes (LFE) virtual clearinghouse for more resources. LFE and the Social Science Extreme Events Research Network (SSEER) network are also publishing a new joint report on follow-up reconnaissance this week, and will hold a free webinar on Tuesday, February 11 to present the team’s findings. Register here to attend the webinar.
We encourage you to explore this collection to learn from these significant seismic events.
Special Collection Guest Editors:
Ayşegül Askan, METU, Ankara, Türkiye
Eser Çakti, KOERI, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul, Türkiye
Kemal Önder Çetin, METU, Ankara, Türkiye
Ayse Hortacsu, Applied Technology Council, Redwood City, CA, USA
Ayhan Irfanoglu, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
Ali Güney Özcebe, EUCENTRE, Pavia, Italy
Robb Moss, California Polytechnic State University
Anastasios Sextos, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
Emel Seyhan, Moody’s, Newark, CA, USA
Halûk Sucuoğlu, METU, Ankara, Türkiye
Berna Unutmaz, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Türkiye
Ufuk Yazgan, ITU, Istanbul, Türkiye
