M6.1 Earthquake Near Do?an?ehir, Turkey, May 5, 1986

Map

Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.

The earthquake

Magnitude: 6.1 (Mw, moment), strong
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Mon, May 5, 1986, 6:35 AM GMT+3
UTC: 1986-05-05 03:35:38 UTC
Depth: 9.6 km (6.0 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 37.993° N, 37.806° E
Region: Turkey
Strongest shaking: VII, very strong shaking
Tsunami flag: No
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

Magnitude estimates

Different scales measure different things and differ by a few tenths. The USGS marks one as preferred, and it is the one this page uses.

Mag.	Scale	Computed by	Notes
6.1	Mw, moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
6.04	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
6.0	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary

Deaths and damage

From NOAA NCEI’s Significant Earthquake Database (record 5094), matched to this event by time and place.

Deaths: 15
Injuries: 100
Damage: $5 million
Houses destroyed: 4,000

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA’s full record of this earthquake

From Wikipedia

The 1986 Malatya earthquake was a moment magnitude (Mw) 6.1 earthquake that occurred in the early morning hours of May 5, 1986. The shaking reached a maximum Modified Mercalli Intensity of VIII (Severe). It occurred near the city of Malatya, Turkey.

Text from Wikipedia, “1986 Malatya earthquake”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted as written; the full article has the rest.

The article is about the earthquake NOAA’s record describes, matched to this one by date, place and magnitude.

Wikidata records: 15 deaths, 100 injured and $5 million in damage. These are counts entered by Wikidata’s editors; they may differ from the official count, and this page never adds them to another figure. Q113158846, CC0.

What happened

The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.

Fifteen people killed, 100 injured and approximately 4,000 houses damaged in the Dogansehir-Golbasi area. Damage to all houses in the village of Kapidere. Slight damage to houses around the cities of Adiyaman and Elbistan. Felt strongly at Gaziantep, Urfa, Kayseri, Sivas, Kahramanmaras, Diyarbakir, Antakya and Mardin. Some dangerous cracks in the arch of Surgu Dam. Slight damage to railroads in the epicentral area. Depth from broadband displacement seismograms. FAULT PLANE SOLUTION: P-Waves NP1:Strike=83 Dip=87 Slip=23 NP2:Strike=352 Dip=67 Slip=177 Principal Axes: (T) Plg=18 Azm=310 (P) Plg=14 Azm=215 Comment: The focal mechanism is poorly controlled and corresponds to strike-slip faulting with a moderate reverse component. The preferred fault plane is not determined. MOMENT TENSOR SOLUTION Dep 15 No. of sta: 13 Moment Tensor; Scale 10**25 d-cm Mrr=0.06 Mtt=-0.36 Mff=0.30 Mrt=0.08 Mrf=-0.11 Mtf=1.19 Principal axes: (T) Val=1.20 Plg=2 Azm=127 (N) Val=0.08 Plg=84 Azm=18 (P) Val=-1.28 Plg=6 Azm=217 Best Double Couple:Mo=1.2*10**25 NP1:Strike=262 Dip=85 Slip=-3 NP2:Strike=352 Dip=87 Slip=-175 CENTROID, MOMENT TENSOR (HRV) Data Used: GDSN L.P.B.: 17S, 37C Centroid Location: Origin Time 03:35:41.7 0.4 Lat 37.72N 0.05 Lon 37.70E 0.05 Dep 15.0 BDY Half-duration 3.8 Moment Tensor; Scale 10**25 D-CM Mrr=0.21 0.03 Mtt=-0.60 0.04 Mff=0.39 0.02 Mrt=0.07 0.08 Mrf=-0.81 0.06 Mtf=1.03 0.03 Principal Axes: (T) Val=1.42 Plg=30 Azm=116 (N) Val=0.00 Plg=53 Azm=334 (P) Val=-1.41 Plg=19 Azm=217 Best Double Couple:Mo=1.4*10**25 NP1:Strike=260 Dip=54 Slip=9 NP2:Strike=164 Dip=82 Slip=144

From the USGS event page for usp0002thr. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

Shaking

The USGS ShakeMap: shaking estimated from seismic stations and the quake’s size, on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.

Strongest estimated: VII, very strong shaking
Peak ground acceleration: 29.0% of gravity
Peak ground velocity: 3.5 cm/s
Map: Automatic

USGS ShakeMap: estimated shaking intensity around the epicenter — Estimated shaking intensity. Map: USGS ShakeMap.

Did you feel it?

No one has reported feeling this quake to the USGS.

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Depth from: OPERATOR_ASSIGNED

Nearest places

Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 3.1 and up: 13 in the 60 days after this one and 0 in the 30 days before it.

After

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp0002thr (also filed as gcmtb050586a, gcmt19860505033538, atlas19860505033539, iscgem494730). Read Fri, Oct 2, 2026, 12:21 AM UTC.