Number of earthquakes in Turkey 1990-2024
As Turkey 's geographical area is located almost entirely on fault lines, thousands of earthquakes of various magnitudes happen each year. In 2024, the Turkish Disaster & Emergency Management Authority documented more than 30,400 earth tremors until December 15. Additionally, the year with the highest earthquakes recorded was 2023, with over 74 thousand tremors registered.
An earthquake-prone country
As Turkey sits on top of major seismic fault lines, earthquakes are not uncommon in the country. In the last century, the country has been hit by thousands of powerful temblors and aftershocks, of which 15 were above seven magnitude. The country witnessed the most powerful earthquake on December 27, 1939, in the eastern province of Erzincan, leaving nearly 33 thousand dead. The death toll of the 1999 tremblor in Turkey, with the epicenter of Gölcük, Kocaeli, which affected the whole Marmara region including İstanbul, equaled over 17 thousand.
Major earthquakes in 2023
On February 6, 2023, the southern and southeastern region of Turkey and Syria border region were struck by two strong earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks in the following days. With the epicenter in Pazarcık, Kahramanmaraş and Elbistan, Kahramanmaraş, the two large quakes directly affected 10 cities and more than 14 million people in Turkey. According to the assessment of AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Authority) the depth of the 7.7-point magnitude quake was 8.6 km, while the second tremor was only seven km deep. Due to the strong and shallow earthquakes in the region and poorly constructed apartments with weak substructure, over 18 thousand buildings in 11 cities collapsed, while at least 62 thousand dwellings were damaged. As of March 4, 2023, the earthquake death toll in the region reached nearly 46 thousand.
