Prof. Dr. Naci Görür: The 250-year period has expired, it is imminent

Earthquake scientist Prof. Dr. Naci Görür attended a panel organized by the TMMOB Provincial Coordination Board.

Before the panel, the Bingöl Municipality Conference Hall, where the speech was to be held, was flooded. After the water was drained, Prof. Dr. Görür gave a presentation on the seismicity of Bingöl and an earthquake-resilient Bingöl.

Stating that they must make Bingöl earthquake-resilient, Prof. Dr. Görür reminded that Bingöl is located at the intersection of the East Anatolian Fault and the North Anatolian Fault.

Emphasizing that Karlıova is a special place where fault systems intersect, Prof. Dr. Görür said, "It is a plate boundary. Plate boundaries are like a trap. At that time, it was not known what an earthquake was. However, as science and technology developed, the causes of earthquakes were understood."

If you are going to live on a plate boundary, your house cannot be ordinary. The contractor must be special, the engineering must be solid, and the materials used must be of high quality. The type, foundation, and ground of the house must be proper. Before an earthquake occurs, the damage it could cause must be calculated in advance and measures must be taken accordingly. When an earthquake happens, how much damage will it cause to Bingöl, and how will it cause it? We have to know and identify these before the earthquake even happens. After identifying these, we will carry out damage reduction work accordingly. These faults produce earthquakes when their time comes. The 250-year period for the Yedisu fault has expired; it is imminent.

I am not saying this to scare you. The 1939 Erzincan earthquake occurred, and approximately 40 thousand people died. The Yedisu Fault did not break in the 1939 earthquake; the last earthquake here occurred in 1784. Therefore, the fault has accumulated its stress. When I say the Yedisu Fault has broken or will break, I am speaking based on scientific data.

But I cannot know the time, no one can. Since I cannot change, move, or sell these faults, and since we cannot leave Bingöl and live elsewhere, we need to make Bingöl an earthquake-resilient city. An earthquake-resilient city means a city that survives a major earthquake with minimal damage. For example, while we buried 50 thousand people in one night on February 6, an earthquake of the same magnitude occurred in Taiwan and 10 people died by chance. That is an earthquake-resilient Taiwan, an earthquake-resilient Maraş, Malatya," he said.

"BİNGÖL MUST BE MADE AN EARTHQUAKE-RESILIENT CITY"

Pointing out that Bingöl must be made an earthquake-resilient city, Görür said, "Is it possible to make Bingöl an earthquake-resilient city? Yes, it is. We can make not only Bingöl but all of Turkey earthquake-resilient in 20 years. A city can be made earthquake-resilient with parameters consisting of administration, public, infrastructure, building stock, ecosystem-environment, and economy. The administration is what we call the municipality. The mayor will prepare the city for an earthquake. All institutions other than the municipality will, of course, support the municipality. The municipality will prepare the city for an earthquake; there is no other way. There will be a mayor at the head, and there will be a general coordinator next to him who will inform the mayor about all work related to earthquake preparedness, and the mayor will explain this to the public.

Under the general coordinator, a public coordinator, infrastructure coordinator, building stock coordinator, ecosystem-environment coordinator, and economy coordinator will serve. What will the public do? If the people of Bingöl do not know how to prepare for an earthquake, if they do not have the knowledge, accumulation, and culture about earthquakes, you cannot prepare Bingöl for an earthquake even if you do the impossible. Unless you receive training and pass that knowledge on from generation to generation, you cannot make Bingöl earthquake-resilient.

A child should grow up seeing it from the family and continue with that culture. In the field of infrastructure and building stock, the city's micro-zoning studies need to be carried out. If you ask the administrators, they say we have our micro-zoning study. Micro-zoning studies are done by dividing Bingöl into squares, taking core samples from the center of each square, examining the cores in the laboratory, examining all its geological, geophysical, and topographical features, coordinating them, and turning them into hazard maps. It cannot be done any other way; it is not such a simple job. In other words, if you do a proper micro-zoning study in Bingöl, at least 30-40 million dollars must be spent, and the work must be carried out according to the results of that micro-zoning," he said.

News Source: İHA