Turkey earthquakes

M5.9 earthquake 9 km WSW of Seferihisar, Turkey

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck 9 km WSW of Seferihisar, Turkey on Fri, Oct 21, 2005, 12:40 AM GMT+3 (21:40 UTC), 10 km (6 mi) below the surface.

Seferihisar 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: 5.9 (Mwb, body-wave moment), moderate
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Fri, Oct 21, 2005, 12:40 AM GMT+3
UTC: 2005-10-20 21:40:04 UTC
Depth: 10.0 km (6.2 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 38.152° N, 26.751° E
Region: Turkey
Felt reports: 56
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
5.9	Mwb, body-wave moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
5.84	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
5.8	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary

Deaths and damage

From NOAA NCEI’s Significant Earthquake Database (record 6779), matched to this event by time and place.

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 15
Damage: Limited (under about $1 million)
Houses destroyed: Some (about 51 to 100)
Houses damaged: Some (about 51 to 100)

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.

One person died of a heart attack and fifteen others injured at Izmir. Minor damage to several buildings at Urla. Felt (VI) at Izmir and (III) at Istanbul. Felt at Balikesir, Bursa, Buyukcekmece, Canakkale, Eskisehir, Gebze, Golcuk, Kusadasi, Manisa, Odemis, Polatli and Tekirdag. Also felt at Chios, Kalamakion, Kos, Mytilini, Neon Karlovasion, Psikhikon and Zakinthos, Greece.

From the USGS event page for usp000e2bq. 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: 25.5% of gravity
Peak ground velocity: 3.3 cm/s
Map: Automatic

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

Did you feel it?

56 people reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was VII, very strong shaking.

Fault motion and ground failure

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

Faulting: Strike-slip
Nodal plane 1: Strike 231°, dip 73°, rake -169°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 138°, dip 80°, rake -17°

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Depth from: OPERATOR_ASSIGNED
Station coverage gap: 19°
Stations used: 494

Nearest places

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

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 2.9 and up: at least 199 in the 60 days after this one and 120 in the 30 days before it.

After

The first 60 of at least 199.

Before

Earthquakes today Turkey earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp000e2bq (also filed as us2005ekb3, gcmtc200510202140a, gcmt20051020214004, atlas20051020214003, iscgem7704271). Read Thu, Oct 1, 2026, 2:52 PM UTC.