Turkey earthquakes

M5.4 earthquake 19 km WSW of Ula, Turkey

A magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck 19 km WSW of Ula, Turkey on Tue, Dec 21, 2004, 1:02 AM GMT+2 (23:02 UTC), 5 km (3 mi) below the surface.

A larger quake followed: M5.5 23 km SE of Güvercinlik, Turkey. This one was a foreshock.

Marmaris forecast More in Turkey

Map

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

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The earthquake

Magnitude: 5.4 (Mwc, centroid moment), moderate
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Tue, Dec 21, 2004, 1:02 AM GMT+2
UTC: 2004-12-20 23:02:12 UTC
Depth: 5.0 km (3.1 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 37.042° N, 28.206° 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
5.4	Mwc, centroid moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
5.32	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
5.3	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary

Deaths and damage

From NOAA NCEI’s Significant Earthquake Database (record 5834), matched to this event by time and place.

Injuries: 3
Damage: Limited (under about $1 million)

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

What happened

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

Three people injured, some buildings damaged and rockslides blocked a highway at Marmaris. Felt at Bodrum, Datca and Izmir.

From the USGS event page for usp000db47. 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: 21.5% of gravity
Peak ground velocity: 2.9 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: Normal
Nodal plane 1: Strike 105°, dip 45°, rake -69°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 257°, dip 48°, rake -109°

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Station coverage gap: 25°
Stations used: 508

Nearest places

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

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 2.4 and up: 102 in the 60 days after this one and 5 in the 30 days before it.

After

The first 60 of 102.

Before

Earthquakes today Turkey earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp000db47 (also filed as gcmtc122004f, gcmt20041220230212, atlas20041220230218, iscgem7450403). Read Thu, Oct 1, 2026, 8:45 AM UTC.