Seismic Protection of Museum Collections: Lessons Learned After the 1999 Earthquakes in Turkey

Download
2012-6-1
Ertürk, Nevra
Turkey has a long history of large earthquakes in three major fault zones that place two-thirds of the country. Following the two major earthquakes that struck the nortwestern part of Turkey in 1999, several attempts have been taken at hospitals, schools or administrative buildings. The two earthquakes prompted museum professionals and policymakers to consider measures to protect museum collections as well as buildings against earthquake. After the 1999 earthquakes, various projects, scientific researches, trainings and meetings were and are still being held on the seismic protection of museum collections and there are ongoing efforts. Seismic protection of museum collections is a relatively new topic in Turkey. Although the subject is on the agenda of museum professionals or engineers in some of the earthquake-prone countries such as USA, Japan, Greece, Italy and India in more than three decades, it is not represented enough in the world preservation/conservation literature. The paper aims to provide information about the challenges faced in Turkish museums before the 1999 earthquakes, and mitigation efforts taken at national and institutional levels in the last decade. The data is complemented with two questionnaire surveys, as well as literature review and observations. It concludes with suggestions that might be applied to other earthquake-prone countries which have similar problems. The paper provides an input to the literature through the examples of mitigation efforts in Turkish museums and suggestions for future actions.

Suggestions

Evaluation of alluvial deposits in Gemlik basin in terms of earthquake codes.
Avşar, Ulaş; Doyuran, Vedat; Department of Geological Engineering (2006)
Gemlik County is located in the Marmara Region (NW Turkey), which has been affected by destructive earthquakes sourced from North Anatolian Fault System throughout its history. The bulk of the settlement rests on alluvial deposits of the Gemlik pull-apart basin. So, it is vital to investigate the foundation soils in this basin and the response of them to earthquakes. Many earthquake codes were established by the authorities in different countries of the world to estimate the possible ground shaking and seis...
Assessment of tsunami resilience of Haydarpasa Port in the Sea of Marmara by high-resolution numerical modeling
AYTÖRE, Betul; Yalçıner, Ahmet Cevdet; Zaytsev, Andrey; ÇANKAYA, Zeynep Ceren; Süzen, Mehmet Lütfi (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2016-08-02)
Turkey is highly prone to earthquakes because of active fault zones in the region. The Marmara region located at the western extension of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) is one of the most tectonically active zones in Turkey. Numerous catastrophic events such as earthquakes or earthquake/landslide-induced tsunamis have occurred in the Marmara Sea basin. According to studies on the past tsunami records, the Marmara coasts have been hit by 35 different tsunami events in the last 2000 years. The recent o...
Seismic hazard in the Istanbul Metropolitan Area: A preliminary re-evaluation
Kalkan, E.; Gulkan, P.; Ozturk, N. Yilmaz; Celebi, M. (2008-01-01)
In 1999, two destructive earthquakes (M7.4 Kocaeli and M7.2 Duzce) occurred in the north west of Turkey and resulted in major stress-drops on the western segment of the North Anatolian Fault system where it continues under the Marmara Sea. These undersea fault segments were recently explored using bathymetric and reflection surveys. These recent findings helped to reshape the seismotectonic environment of the Marmara basin, which is a perplexing tectonic domain. Based on collected new information, seismic h...
Pedestrian Tsunami Evacuation Time Maps for Southern Coast of Bodrum Peninsula, Turkey
Çelikbaş, Büşra; Tüfekçi Enginar, Duygu; Doğan, Gözde Güney; Süzen, Mehmet Lütfi; Kolat, Çağıl; Yalçıner, Ahmet Cevdet; Necmioğlu, Öcal; Annunziato, Alessandro; Santını, Marzıa; Bali, Siret (2020-05-06)
Turkey suffered from devastating earthquakes and faced with a considerable number of tsunamis in its past. Although, tsunamis occurred in Turkey are not catastrophic as the ones in Pacific Ocean, they may still cause substantial damage in highly populated and/or touristic coastal areas. On July 21, 2017 at 22.31 UTC, a strong earthquake in the Gulf of Gokova (Mediterranean Sea) with a magnitude (Mw) of 6.6 (KOERI) was recorded. The earthquake caused a tsunami that affected the southern coast of Bodrum, Turk...
ENGINEERING EVALUATION OF THE 1 OCTOBER 1995 DINAR EARTHQUAKE (ML=5.9)
Sucuoğlu, Haluk; Ergunay, Oktay; Gencoglu, Sinan (1997-01-01)
In 1995, a swarm of earthquakes affected the city of Dinar, Turkey, which is located in Southwest Anatolia and has a population of 35 000. The mainshock having a local magnitude of 5.9 occurred on 1 October 1995. It was preceded by foreshocks in the previous four days, the largest one with a magnitude of 4.7. These foreshocks initiated structural damage in many buildings, which was then severely aggravated by the mainshock and a strong aftershock two hours later, with a magnitude of 5.0. Numerous aftershock...
Citation Formats
N. Ertürk, “Seismic Protection of Museum Collections: Lessons Learned After the 1999 Earthquakes in Turkey,” ODTÜ Mimarlık Fakültesi Dergisi, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 289–300, 2012, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: http://jfa.arch.metu.edu.tr/archive/0258-5316/2012/cilt29/sayi_1/289-300.pdf.