Damage assessment of buildings after 24 January 2020 Elazığ-Sivrice earthquake

The majority of Turkey’s geography is at risk of earthquakes. Within the borders of Turkey, including the two major active faults contain the North-Eastern and Eastern Anatolia, earthquake, threatening the safety of life and property. On January 24, 2020, an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 occurred at 8:55 p.m. local time. According to the data obtained from the stations in the region, peak ground acceleration in the east-west direction was measured as 0.292 g from the 2308 coded station in Sivrice. It is thought that the earthquake with a magnitude of Mw 6.8 was developed on the Sivrice-Puturge segment of the Eastern Anatolian Fault, which is a left lateral strike slip fault, and the tear developed in an area of 50-55 km. Aftershocks ranging from 0.8 to 5.1 Mw occurred following the main shock on the Eastern Anatolian Fault. The earthquake caused severe structural damages in Elazığ and neighboring provinces. As a result of the field investigations carried out in this study, significant damage levels were observed in the buildings since it did not meet the criteria in the earthquake codes. Within the study's scope, the structural damage cases in reinforced concrete and masonry structures were investigated. Many structural deficiencies and mistakes such as non-ductile details, poor concrete quality, short columns, strong beams–weak columns mechanism, large and heavy overhangs, masonry building damages and inadequate reinforcement arrangements were observed. Requirements of seismic codes are discussed and compared with observed earthquake damage.