7ICEES (The 7th International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology )

Date: 06 March 2023
Our Message Regarding the February 6, 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes (Pazarcık M7.7 and Elbistan M7.6)

According to the data obtained from AFAD, an earthquake with Mw=7.7 occurred on February 6, 2023, at 04:17 local time in Pazarcık (Kahramanmaraş). The earthquake's focal depth was reported to be 8.6 km. The earthquake was felt very strongly in Kahramanmaraş, especially in Gaziantep, Malatya, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Adana, Osmaniye, Şanlıurfa, and Hatay, as well as throughout the whole Eastern Anatolia region, causing significant loss of life, injuries, and property damage. Later on the same day, another earthquake with Mw=7.6 occurred at a depth of 7.0 km in Elbistan (Kahramanmaraş) at 13:24 local time, further increasing the extent of destruction in the same region. So far, thousands of aftershocks have been experienced in the region, some of which were larger than magnitude 6.

Kahramanmaraş earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6 that occurred approximately three years after the Mw=6.8 earthquake in Sivrice, Elazığ on January 24, 2020, has reminded everyoneof the seismic hazardthat affects residential areas in our country. Even though it had been stated that the Sivrice earthquake was a harbinger of a larger earthquake that could occur in the region, and there are important lessons to be learned from this earthquake, the result was unfortunately very tragic. We, as the Earthquake Engineering Association of Türkiye (EEAT), advocate prioritizing policies that can mitigate the losses caused by these earthquakes to manageable levels . There are many duties that we need to fulfill as a country to avoid experiencing these types of painful experiences over and over in the future. We have a lot of work to do in the areas of legislation, institutionalization policies, social awareness, and technological applications for disaster management. We believe that continuing the duties that have already been initiated without any hesitation will make our country more resilient against disasters. Based on the fact that we will again experience major earthquakes in the future, it should not be forgotten that the primary duty and responsibility to be fulfilled with the help of science and technology lies in the measures taken before an earthquake, rather than short-term recovery efforts after each disaster. In this case, our goal should be to complete our pre-earthquake preparations as much as possible before that day comes and create resilient cities against possible earthquakes.

We would like to remind once again that the 7th International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (7ICEES), which aims to bring together researchers and practitioners working on earthquake engineering topics to develop collaboration opportunities, will be held in conjunction with the 18th World Seismic Isolation, Energy Distribution and Active Vibration Control of Structures Conference (18WCSI) on November 6-10, 2023, at the Xanadu Resort Convention Center in Belek, Antalya. Given the field observations and studies conducted in the aftermath of the Kahramanmaras earthquakes in various fields such as earth sciences, geotechnics, superstructure, infrastructure, disaster management, and others, this conference has gained significant importance in better understanding the earthquakes centered around Kahramanmaras, one of the most destructive earthquake disasters in modern times, and discussing what kind of urgent strategies can be developed to mitigate damages and losses for future destructive earthquakes that may occur in different regions of Turkey.

In this context, the theme of this year's conference will include special topics related to the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes. For this purpose, panels and special events will be organized at our conference. In addition, simulated ground motions, site characterization, energy-based earthquake engineering research, developments in insurance and reinsurance against multiple hazards, earthquake safety of industrial structures, nuclear facilities, storage tanks, lifelines, and coastal and offshore transmission pipelines, have been determined as other special session topics. Our evaluations for different special session topics are still ongoing.

As the EEAT, which is a non-governmental organization that strives to mitigate losses in earthquakes and represent our country in national and international platforms through interdisciplinary participation in earthquake-related issues, we hope that such a tragedy will never happen again in our country or in the world. We respectfully remember our citizens who we lost in the earthquake, and we wish urgent healing to our injured fellow citizens.

Sincerely,

EEAT Board of Directors