First Hand Observations from the February 6th Türkiye Earthquake

First Hand Observations from the February 6th Türkiye Earthquake Two large earthquakes with a moment magnitude of 7.7 and 7.6 hit eastern Türkiye and north Syria on February 6, 2023. The epicenter of the first earthquake was Kahramanmaraş-Pazarcık, where the second was in Kahramanmaraş-Elbistan. The two earthquakes were approximately nine hours apart and their effect extended to 11 provinces in southern Türkiye causing massive collapses and damage to buildings, bridges, airports, ports, retaining structures, hydraulic structures, lifelines, etc. More than 100,000 buildings collapsed or heavily damaged, 15 bridges out of 1000 bridges were affected. The earthquake was followed by hundreds of aftershocks that significantly affected damaged buildings and infrastructure and caused the collapse of more buildings days after the major earthquake. During the field visit, right after the earthquake, although it is hard to investigate collapsed buildings, parts of these buildings were looked at closely and investigated; damaged buildings were closely investigated, and buildings during construction were investigated as well. Different types of failures were observed such as structural, architectural, and geotechnical. These failures will be presented and analyzed with recommendations. Learning Objectives -Understanding causes of failures to buildings and bridges -How to avoid such failures -Understanding Turkish code evolution and requirements