Kahramanmaras-Gaziantep, Turkiye Mw 7.8 Earthquake on February 6, 2023: Preliminary Report on Strong Ground Motion and Building Response Estimations
This research addresses building safety in earthquake-prone regions like Turkey, but it is incremental as it applies existing methods to new data without introducing novel techniques.
The study analyzed the 2023 Mw 7.8 earthquake in Turkey using seismic records to assess its impact on structures, finding that buildings were overloaded beyond design levels, contributing to collapses, and recommending updates to the seismic code for higher spectral acceleration values.
The effects on structures of the earthquake with magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale (moment magnitude scale) which took place in Pazarcik, Kahramanmaras, Turkiye at 04:17 a.m. local time (01:17 UTC) on February 6, 2023, are investigated by processing suitable seismic records using the open-source software OpenSeismoMatlab. The earthquake had a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme) and it was followed by a Mw 7.5 earthquake nine hours later, centered 95 km to the north-northeast from the first. Peak and cumulative seismic measures as well as elastic response spectra, constant ductility (or isoductile) response spectra, and incremental dynamic analysis curves were calculated for two representative earthquake records of the main event. Furthermore, the acceleration response spectra of a large set of records were compared to the acceleration design spectrum of the Turkish seismic code. Based on the study, it is concluded that the structures were overloaded far beyond their normal design levels. This, in combination with considerable vertical seismic components, was a contributing factor towards the collapse of many buildings in the region. Modifications of the Turkish seismic code are required so that higher spectral acceleration values can be prescribed, especially in earthquake-prone regions.