08-Mar-10
A moderate earthquake occurred today in eastern Turkey.
Source: USGS
This magnitude 6.0 event was located at a shallow depth of 10 km and caused strong ground shaking in the epicentral region. This earthquake occurred at the east end of the well-documented Anatolian fault system, near the intersection of the North Anatolian fault with the East Anatolian fault. This region has experienced numerous historical earthquakes of this magnitude and greater, and today's earthquake was centered very near the location of a M6.4 earthquake that occurred on 1 May 2003. Today's earthquake is located about 100 km SSE of the devastating 1939 M7.9 Erzincan earthquake which killed over 30,000 and caused the original city to be abandoned and rebuilt farther north.
Approximately 100,000 people were exposed to strong shaking in today's earthquake. In this relatively rural region, many buildings are constructed of vulnerable materials such as "mud-brick" masonry. In the zone of strongest shaking, many of these structures will have collapsed, resulting in casualties. EQECAT expects insured losses from this event to be small and similar in magnitude and distribution to any losses incurred from the M6.4 event in 2003. Insured losses will be related primarily to exposures from the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool, a program which mandates residential earthquake coverage upon transfer of home ownership. |
