Turkey reviews quake readiness in anticipation of expected earthquakes | DW News
Last month's devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria have raised urgent questions about building safety in the megatropolis of Istanbul. Now, the race is on to get the city prepared, with engineers offering free building checks for residents.
In densely populated Istanbul, a team of engineers is going from house to house, measuring the quality of concrete and the width of steel reinforcement bars. Istanbul authorities have admitted the city is has fallen behind on earthquake prevention - and they are now offering free building checks for concerned residents While the city in the Bosphorus Strait was spared by the recent quakes, experts say people have a right to be concerned. One of the most active fault lines in the world runs just south of Istanbul. The North Anatolian Fault separates the Eurasian and Anatolian tectonic plates. Seismologists say there's a 47-percent chance that Istanbul will be hit by another massive earthquake in the next 30 years - one with a magnitude above 7.3. The North Anatolian fault line has caused deadly damage before. In 1999, a similarly strong tremor struck just east of Istanbul, killing a thousand people in the city, and 17,000 people in total. Since then, the city has undergone a rapid wave of urbanization and the city's population has doubled. Some 15 million people live in Istanbul today, all of whom at risk if an earthquake strikes. Magnifying the danger, according to engineers and architects: a 2018 government move to legalize unregistered construction work. The municipality says nearly 100,000 buildings in Istanbul are at risk of collapse, or serious damage in the event of a major quake.
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