Earthquakes in Bursa

Bursa, a large industrial city in northwestern Turkey at the foot of Mount Uludağ, faces a high seismic risk because it lies close to the western strands of the North Anatolian Fault, one of the world's most active and dangerous strike-slip fault systems. This roughly 1,500-kilometre fault marks the boundary where the Anatolian plate slides westward past the Eurasian plate, and its southern branch passes just to the north of the city near the Sea of Marmara and the Gemlik Gulf. The plain on which Bursa sits is filled with soft sediments that amplify shaking, so ruptures on nearby fault segments can produce strong, damaging motion in the city.

The North Anatolian Fault has a documented history of stepping westward in a sequence of large earthquakes, most dramatically during the 20th century when a cascade of ruptures marched toward the Marmara region, culminating in the devastating magnitude 7.6 Izmit earthquake of 17 August 1999 that killed more than 17,000 people not far to the northeast of Bursa. Historical records show the Bursa area itself has been struck by destructive earthquakes over the centuries, including strong shocks in 1855 that damaged the city's Ottoman mosques and monuments. Seismologists regard the segment of the fault beneath the Sea of Marmara as a serious future threat, keeping Bursa firmly within a zone of elevated hazard.