World

Turkey: Quake Threat Lessens

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

November 15, 1999 / 2:56 PM EST / CBS

Struggling with the impact of two major earthquakes in three months, Turkey learned Thursday that danger to its biggest city from any new tremor was less than had been feared.

Both the last major tremors were felt strongly in the nation's commercial capital Istanbul, the city now hosting scores of world leaders for a European security summit ending Friday.

More than 17,500 people were killed and some 500,000 left homeless by a tremor measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale, which struck near the city of Izmit on Aug. 17. Southern parts of Istanbul sustained damage in that quake and around 100 people died.

A week ago, a tremor of 7.2 hit the province of Bolu, killing more than 500 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless. Those survivors are living under canvas or in makeshift shelters in wet and cold winter conditions.

Both earthquakes were caused by the north Anatolian fault line, which runs south of Istanbul, a sprawling city of more than 10 million people astride the Bosphorus straits.

But seismological surveys have shown the fault under the Marmara Sea runs further south than thought, presenting a lesser earthquake risk to Istanbul, newspapers said Thursday.

A group of angry quake victims in the city of Bolu marched on the official "crisis center" demanding better state provision of tents, food and drinking water, Anatolian news agency said.

The government has announced it will shelter 8,000 of the homeless in state-owned holiday complexes on the coast.

Earthquake expert Ahmet Mete Isikara said the fault line was some 30-37 miles south of Istanbul, home also to Byzantine and Ottoman historic buildings and artifacts.

According to earlier estimates, the fault line was believed to be at a distance of just 12-16 miles, generating concern that a major quake could devastate the city.

"Good news for Istanbul on the fault line," said a headline in Hurriyet newspaper.

Turkish Petroleum Company TPAO conducted the geophysical survey, producing a seabed map after exploration work by a team of specially equipped ships that crisscrossed the Marmara.

Isikara made a plea for an end to the mass panic that has sent thousands of Istanbul residents into the streets on recent days in fear of further earthquakes.

"As the impact on Istanbul will be less (than expected), we must get on with our daily lives without delay," said Isikara, who heads the country's main seismological observatory.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit called earlier in the week on quake experts not to foster panic by announcements of possible quakes in Istanbul.

The city last took the brunt of a major earthquake in 1894, and in 1766 before that. Accounts of the 1894 quake describe gaping cracks opening up in what was then the city's main business area, but Sultan Abdulhamid II banned any reporting of the death toll.