Damage during the 6–24 February 2017 Ayvacık (Çanakkale) earthquake swarm

Abstract

Abstract. On 6 February 2017 an earthquake swarm began at the western end of Turkey. This was the first recorded swarm in the Çanakkale region since continuous seismic monitoring began in 1970. The number of earthquakes located increased during the following 10 days. This paper describes the output of a survey carried out in the earthquake-prone towns in the area of Ayvacık, Çanakkale, Turkey, in February 2017 after the earthquakes. Observations of traditional buildings were made on site at the rural area of Ayvacık. A description of the main structural features and their effects on the most frequently viewed damage modes were made according to in-plane, out-of-plane behavior of the wall regarding construction practice, connection type, etc. It was found that there were no convenient connections like cavity ties or sufficient mortar strength resulting in decreased and/or lack of lateral load bearing capacity of the wall. Furthermore, distribution maps of damaged/undamaged buildings according to villages, damage ratios, structures and damage levels are generated. Distribution maps showed that damage ratio of structures is higher in villages close to epicenter and decrease away from epicenter except Gülpınar, where past experiences and development level affect the construction quality.

Preface: Damage of natural hazards: assessment and mitigation

“…Increasingly, aspects of social justice and equity are included in risk assessments to support the selection of optimal damage mitigation measures (Thaler et al, 2018). Two studies included in this special issue underpin this aspect by highlighting the importance of comprehensive event and risk assessments as well as integrated approaches to investigate the interaction of physical and socio-economic processes (Zhang et al, 2017;Markantonis et al, 2018). Additionally, cost assessments may include costs of the recovery phase as households may face enormous difficulties in recovering from events, as shown by Markantonis et al (2018) in this special issue.…”

“…Two studies included in this special issue underpin this aspect by highlighting the importance of comprehensive event and risk assessments as well as integrated approaches to investigate the interaction of physical and socio-economic processes (Zhang et al, 2017;Markantonis et al, 2018). Additionally, cost assessments may include costs of the recovery phase as households may face enormous difficulties in recovering from events, as shown by Markantonis et al (2018) in this special issue. Thus, there is growing interest in various socio-economic aspects, types of damage and exposed elements (Thieken et al, 2016).…”

“…Post-event surveys of affected households were undertaken by Markantonis et al (2018) and Spekkers et al (2017) to gain knowledge about private risk mitigation actions to cope with droughts and/or floods. Markantonis et al (2018) used an integrated approach to assess floods and droughts in the transboundary Mékrou River basin, West Africa.…”

“…Post-event surveys of affected households were undertaken by Markantonis et al (2018) and Spekkers et al (2017) to gain knowledge about private risk mitigation actions to cope with droughts and/or floods. Markantonis et al (2018) used an integrated approach to assess floods and droughts in the transboundary Mékrou River basin, West Africa. They utilize climatic trend analysis, a household survey and two econometric models to combine information on climate variability and flood and drought occurrence with information on household mitigation measures and impacts of floods and droughts.…”

“…The special issue "Damage of natural hazards: assessment and mitigation" was inspired by the annual EGU session "Costs of Natural Hazards", which was organized in 2012 for the first time. This special issue presents 12 studies on advancements in the field of damage assessment and mitigation related to droughts (Bachmair et al, 2017;Peichl et al, 2018;Markantonis et al, 2018), extreme rainfall (Cortès et al, 2018;Spekkers et al, 2017), different types of floods (Markantonis et al, 2018;Cortès et al, 2018;Laudan et al, 2017;Bernet et al, 2017;Wagenaar et al, 2017) and earthquakes (Livaoglu et al, 2018;Yılmaz et al, 2018;Altunışık et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2017). A common challenge tackled by many of the studies in this special issue is the lack of impact and damage data.…”