May 5, 1986 Earthquake: Dogansehir-Golbashi, Kapidere, Turkey

Name: May 5, 1986 Earthquake: Dogansehir-Golbashi, Kapidere, Turkey
Start: 1986-05-05
Location: Dogansehir-Golbashi, Kapidere, Turkey

May 5, 1986 · M5.9 · 15 deaths · $5 million · 4,000 houses destroyed

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck Dogansehir-Golbashi, Kapidere, Turkey on May 5, 1986 at 03:35:38 UTC, 10 km below the surface. It killed 15 people.

Map

Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.

The earthquake

Date: May 5, 1986
Time: 03:35:38 UTC
Place: Dogansehir-Golbashi, Kapidere, Turkey
Magnitude: 5.9 (Ms)
Magnitude scales: Ms 5.9 · mb 5.9
Focal depth: 10 km (6 mi)
Tsunami: None recorded
Epicenter: 37.993° N, 37.806° E
Country: Turkey
Region: Middle East
USGS record: The USGS’s page for this earthquake

Ms: surface-wave magnitude. mb: body-wave (P-wave) magnitude. NCEI’s headline magnitude is the best of these for the earthquake.

The toll

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.

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.

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.

Magnitude estimates

The magnitudes the USGS catalog lists for this earthquake, by scale and by who computed them. NCEI’s own scales are in the table above.

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

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

Reference #1250 lists $5 million damage.

Sources NCEI cites

The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.

#1053 National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) (1971 to 2013). Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (PDE), a weekly and monthly publication, National Earthquake Information Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Golden, Colorado, 1971 to 2013.
#1054 McClelland, Lindsay, et al, editors (1980-1989). SEAN Bulletin, a monthly publication of the Scientific Event Alert Network of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
#1232 International Seismological Centre (1964-1990). Regional Catalogue of Earthquakes, 1964-1990, Edinburgh, Scotland.
#1250 Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) and the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) (2001). EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium, link

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

Significant earthquakes of 1986 The 1900s Every quake the USGS located in 1986 Recent earthquakes near here This day in weather history

Sources

Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 5094. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event usp0002thr, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.