M7.6 Earthquake Near Derince, Turkey, Aug 17, 1999

Map

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

The earthquake

Magnitude: 7.6 (Mwc, centroid moment), major
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Tue, Aug 17, 1999, 3:01 AM GMT+3
UTC: 1999-08-17 00:01:39 UTC
Depth: 17.0 km (10.6 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 40.748° N, 29.864° E
Region: Turkey
Strongest shaking: IX, violent 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
7.6	Mwc, centroid moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
7.58	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
7.6	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary
7.67	Me, energy	Choy, USGS energy magnitude	Reviewed
7.5	Mww, W-phase moment	Duputel, W-phase inversion	Preliminary
7.53	Mw, moment	USGS finite-fault model	Finite-fault model · Reviewed

Deaths and damage

From NOAA NCEI’s Significant Earthquake Database (record 5527), matched to this event by time and place.

Deaths: 17,118
Injuries: 50,000
Damage: $20 billion
Houses damaged: 73,342

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 The tsunami it caused

From Wikipedia

An earthquake of moment magnitude 7.6 struck Kocaeli Province, Turkey, on 17 August 1999. According to official figures, at least 18,373 people died and 48,901 people were injured during the earthquake, and 5,840 people were missing. At least 155 deaths were associated with the tsunami. The damage was estimated at between $12 billion and $20 billion (in 1999 U.S. dollars) according to various sources such as the World Bank. The earthquake was named for the epicenter's proximity to the northwestern city of İzmit. It occurred at 03:01 local time (00:01 UTC) at a shallow depth of 15 km (9.3 mi). A maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme) was observed. The earthquake lasted for 37 seconds, causing seismic damage, and is widely remembered as one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern Turkish history.

Text from Wikipedia, “1999 İzmit earthquake”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted as written, shortened to its opening; 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: 17,217 deaths, 48,901 injured and $20 billion 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. Q367449, CC0.

What happened

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

At least 17,118 people killed, nearly 50,000 injured, thousands missing, about 500,000 people homeless and estimated 3 to 6.5 billion U.S. dollars damage in Istanbul, Kocaeli and Sakarya Provinces. Felt as far east as Ankara. Felt (III) at Anapa, Russia; Chisinau, Moldova; Simferopol and on the south coast of Crimea, Ukraine. As much as 5 meters of right-lateral strike-slip displacement occurred along a 120-km zone of the North Anatolian Fault between Karamursel and Golyaka. Rupture proceeded from west to east in two subevents. Duration of strong shaking was 37 seconds with maximum acceleration 0.3-0.4g.

From the USGS event page for usp0009d4z. 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: IX, violent shaking
Peak ground acceleration: 92.5% of gravity
Peak ground velocity: 4.7 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.

Fault motion and ground failure

How the rock slipped, from the moment tensor, and the USGS estimate of landslides and liquefaction.

Faulting: Strike-slip
Moment magnitude: 7.5 Mww
Nodal plane 1: Strike 178°, dip 74°, rake 9°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 85°, dip 81°, rake 163°
Landslide alert: Red
Liquefaction alert: Red

Rupture model

How far the rock on each part of the fault slid, from a model fitted to seismic waves recorded around the world.

USGS finite-fault model: slip on the fault plane, in meters — Slip on the fault plane, in meters, from the USGS finite-fault model (moment magnitude 7.53). Model: 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 4.6 and up: 17 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 usp0009d4z (also filed as choy19990817000139, gcmtm081799a, gcmt19990817000139, duputel081799a, atlas19990817000139, iscgem1655218). Read Sat, Oct 3, 2026, 5:42 AM UTC.