Bursa sits on 11 active fault lines, not 6: Report

BURSA

The northwestern province of Bursa, likely to be severely affected by a much-anticipated Marmara quake, sits on 11 active fault lines, not six, the number set by the previous studies, a report by Türkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) has said.

The provincial directorate of AFAD prepared a detailed report for a possible large-scale quake that may cause severe destruction in Bursa.

The report, in which different scenarios were implemented and finalized, included some details from exercises to post-earthquake gathering places, container cities to be created and losses and destruction to be experienced.

As the number of active fault lines is constantly changing in the regions where small-scale tremors frequently occur, a similar change was also observed in Bursa.

The report stressed that Bursa currently sits on 11 active fault lines and not six, determined in previous studies.

According to the report, nearly 200,000 out of 650,000 buildings in the city are not earthquake resistant.

Home to approximately 3.2 million people, Bursa is an important center for the country’s industrial production. It also hosts some 800 emergency assembly areas.

While shedding light on the previous quakes in the region, the report said the 1999 Kocaeli earthquake claimed the lives of 286 people in the city, while the number of tsunamis reported in the Marmara Sea in the last 2,000 years is 30.