Faults leave country vulnerable

TURKEY lies over a fault in the earth’s surface running east to west and is frequently shaken

The greatest disaster in modern times came on December 27, 1939 when a quake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale left some 45,000 people dead in the eastern region of Erzincan.

Other major quakes in the past four decades were:

August 19, 1966: 2,396 dead at Varto, in eastern Turkey; Richter 6.9.

March 28, 1970: 1,086 dead at Gediz (west); Richter 7.2.

September 6, 1975: 2,385 dead at Lice (southeast); Richter 6.6.

January 24, 1976: 3,840 dead at Muradiye (east); Richter 7.5.

October 30, 1983: 1,155 dead at Erzurum and Kars (east); Richter 6.9.

March 13, 1992: 653 dead in Erzincan region (east); Richter 6.8.

October 1, 1995: around 100 dead at Dinar (east); Richter 6.0.

June 27, 1998: 140 dead in Adana province (south); Richter 6.3.

August 17, 1999: around 20,000 people killed at several locations in northern Turkey; Richter 7.4.

February 3, 2002: 44 people killed and more than 300 injured in the western Turkish province of Afyon; Richter 6.0.