Geophysicist warns against soil liquefaction in Türkiye’s Izmir

A geophysicist has highlighted the dangers of soil liquefaction, the practice of filling in the sea to expand the coastal land for more construction space, and warned against its potential risks.

A possible large-scale earthquake would be devastating for these areas, especially in the western coastal city of Izmir, where districts like Konak and Karşıyaka have the highest population density, said Sinancan Öziçer, the head of the Izmir Branch of the Chamber of Geophysics Engineers.

“Our structures are outdated, and tens of thousands of buildings have not yet received engineering service because our citizens are unaware. Therefore, in case of a possible earthquake between 6.2 and 6.6 magnitudes, the loss of life and property could be tremendous,” he explained.

Soil liquefaction means the collapse or tilting of buildings constructed on soil saturated with water. Regular earthquake tremors eventually cause the ground underneath to lose strength and move the buildings atop. An example of this was recorded in the October 2020 earthquake that destroyed a large chunk of Izmir’s Seferihisar district.

Noting that this is due to the resonance and bedrock depth being deeper in Konak and Karşıyaka regions, Öziçer said, “It is necessary to design the structures with site-specific acceleration values ​​by calculating the bedrock depth. For this, deep geophysical methods for more economical and sensitive results with earthquake-resistant structures should be used in a shorter time.”

Öziçer said that an earthquake as big as the Izmir earthquake is not expected in Istanbul since the two cities differ in their tectonic structures, “But the risk is higher in Istanbul where the ground is composed of a fragile alluvial layer throughout.”

“We need to raise awareness and increase scientific studies that can minimize earthquake damage. The bitter experiences we have had in the past have shown the importance of ground survey projects. While inspection mechanisms should be increased in each municipality, unfortunately, in a city like Izmir, only 10 of the 30 district municipalities employ geophysical engineers,” he said.

As the Chamber of Geophysics Engineers, “We invite everyone to take responsibility against earthquakes, which have many parameters. There is no pessimism and fear of an earthquake; it is a natural disaster,” he emphasized.

Öziçer said that the urban transformation should be accelerated by preserving the social facilities in Izmir and that the risk of loss of life can be reduced by raising awareness of the basic disaster, fixing non-structural materials, and correct actions in the event of an earthquake. They explained that about 1,000 people died due to non-structural items in the 1999 earthquake. Therefore, all municipalities should revise and increase their meeting areas after the disaster.

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