A survey of damage observed in Izmir due to 2020 Samos-Izmir earthquake

Abstract

An earthquake of magnitude 6.9 hit the city of Izmir (Turkey) on 30 October 2020, resulting in 117 deaths (in Turkey) and considerable economic losses. The earthquake also triggered a tsunami. Following the earthquake, field surveys are being conducted in a Covid-secure way to study and document the damages caused. The earthquake caused significant damages to residential buildings mainly located in the district of Bayrakli and Bornova. However, no damages were observed in railway and roadway bridges or tunnels and that helped the rescue operations. The damages were mainly structural which included the so-called pancake collapse (where the entire building collapsed) and soft storey type collapse (weak storey characterised with weak columns collapsed), and in some cases, only the ground floor completely collapsed. Due to the proximity of the epicentre and the geology of the area, it seemed that the ground motions were amplified. This technical note provides a summary of the seismological and recorded ground characteristics of the earthquake together with the lessons learnt.