USAR.CZ - USAR team and members abroad / Turkey November 1999

Turkey was affected by many earthquakes during last millennium, and some of them were really strong, but only few of them influenced lives of inhabitants so tragically. In 1939 earthquake in Erzincan approx. 23,000 people perished, and the same area was affected by seismic disturbances in 1992. In 1966 earthquake in Adapazari 2,500 died, and hundreds of casualties were also in 1976 earthquake near the Van lake. But not only Turkey suffers from these natural disasters. In fact, half of the worldwide population lives in active seismic areas, and devastating earthquakes can unexpectedly arise in all those places.