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Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
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1509 Constantinople earthquake
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The 1509 Constantinople earthquake, referred to as The Lesser Judgment Day by contemporaries, occurred in the Sea of Marmara on 10 September 1509 at about 10pm. The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.2 ±0.3 on the surface wave magnitude scale. A tsunami and forty-five days of aftershocks followed the earthquake, over a thousand houses and 109 mosques were destroyed, and an estimated 10,000 people died. The Sea of Marmara is a basin formed at a releasing bend in the North Anatolian Fault. This local zone of extension occurs where this boundary between the Anatolian Plate and the Eurasian Plate steps northwards to the west of Izmit from the Izmit Fault to the Ganos Fault. The pattern of faults within the Sea of Marmara basin is complex, to the west, the fault trends west-east and is pure strike-slip in type. To the east, the fault is NW-SE trending and shows evidence of both normal and strike-slip motion, movement on this fault, which bounds the Çınarcık Basin, was the most likely cause of the 1509 event. The area of significant damage extended from Çorlu in the west to Izmit in the east, galata and Büyükçekmece also suffered severe damage. In Constantinople many houses collapsed, chimneys fell and walls cracked, the newly built Bayezid II Mosque was badly damaged, the main dome was destroyed and a minaret collapsed. The Fatih Mosque suffered damage to its four columns and the dome was split. The former church of Hagia Sophia survived almost unscathed, although a minaret collapsed, inside the mosque, the plaster that had been used to cover up the Byzantine mosaics inside the dome fell off, revealing the Christian images. The number of dead and injured is hard to estimate, with different sources giving accounts varying from 1,000 to 13,000 and it is believed that some members of the Ottoman dynasty died in this earthquake. Earthquake shocks continued for 45 days after the big earthquake, from the area and intensity of shaking, a 70 km fault rupture has been estimated. A tsunami is mentioned in sources with a run-up of greater than 6.0 m. A turbidite bed whose deposition matches the date of the earthquake has been recognised in the Çınarcık Basin, List of earthquakes in Turkey List of historical earthquakes
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1881 Chios earthquake
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The 1881 Chios earthquake occurred at 11,30 UTC on 3 April. It caused severe damage on the island of Chios and also affected Çeşme, the earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 7.3 and there were an estimated 7,866 casualties. The devastation from the earthquake was the last of the three catastrophes that affected the island of Chios in the 19th century, the Aegean Sea is an area of mainly extensional tectonics caused by the subduction of the African Plate beneath Aegean Sea Plate. The town of Chios was devastated, causing casualties, partly due to the narrowness of the streets. In the rest of the island,25 out of the 64 villages were destroyed with another 17 badly damaged, in both Çeşme and Alaçatı about 40% of the houses were destroyed. The number of casualties on the Turkish mainland was low, possibly due to most of the inhabitants leaving their houses to watch the passage of the passenger ship Aya Evangelistra from the shore. The epicenter of the earthquake was in the part of Chios where intensities reached IX on the Mercalli intensity scale. Isoseismal maps show an elongation west to east with an area of intensity VIII affecting the end of the Karaburun Peninsula of the Turkish mainland. Vertical movements of up to 2.5 m were observed, magnitudes ranging from Mw =6.5 to Ms=7.3 have been estimated for this event. A minor tsunami was reported, based on the presence of sand in a garden in Chios. There were many aftershocks, the most damaging being on 5 April,11 April,12 April,13 April,18 April,20 May,9 June and 26 August. After the earthquake many of the inhabitants of Chios left the island and this followed the trend set by the other two catastrophes of the 19th century that devastated the island, the massacre of Chios in 1822 and the failure of the orange crop in 1833. Together these events left most of Chios in a state of poverty, List of earthquakes in Greece List of historical earthquakes
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1942 Guatemala earthquake
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The 1942 Guatemala earthquake occurred at 17,37 local time on August 6 and had ratings of 7.7 on the moment magnitude scale and 7.9 on the surface wave magnitude scale. The epicenter was located off the southern coast of Guatemala, the earthquake caused widespread damage in the west-central highlands of Guatemala. Thirty-eight people died in the earthquake, landslides caused by the combination of the earthquake and the heavy seasonal rains destroyed roads, the Inter-American Highway, and telegraph lines. In Tecpán Guatemala, more than 60% of the houses were demolished, damage was reported in some buildings in Antigua Guatemala, including the Palacio de Los Capitanes Generales and some catholic churches. The earthquake could also be strongly in Mexico and El Salvador. This earthquake was a lower crustal intraplate earthquake with a focal mechanism. Tensional activity has been dominant along the edge along the 1942 rupture zone. It was estimated that earthquakes near the Middle America Trench with magnitudes of about 7. 5~8.0 occurred at intervals of 94 ±54 yrs in southwestern Guatemala, such historical earthquakes included the earthquakes in 1765,1902, and 1942. List of earthquakes in 1942 List of earthquakes in Guatemala Sources
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1894 Istanbul earthquake
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The 1894 Istanbul earthquake occurred in the Çınarcık basin or Gulf of Izmit in the Sea of Marmara on 10 July at 12, 24pm. The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.0 on the surface wave magnitude scale. At least an estimated 1,349 people were killed in towns around the Gulf of Izmit such as Yalova, Sapanca and Adapazarı, the main shock caused a tsunami 1.5 metres high. The Sea of Marmara is a basin formed at a releasing bend in the North Anatolian Fault. This local zone of extension occurs where this boundary between the Anatolian Plate and the Eurasian Plate steps northwards to the west of Izmit from the Izmit Fault to the Ganos Fault. The pattern of faults within the Sea of Marmara basin is complex, to the west, the fault trends west-east and is pure strike-slip in type. To the east, the fault is NW-SE trending and show evidence of both normal and strike-slip motion, movement on the Gulf of Izmit section of the fault, which bounds the Çınarcık Basin, is the most likely cause of the 1894 event. Other possible causes are movement on the Princes Islands segment of the fault, the quake killed 990 people in the area around Yalova and Sapanca,83 in Adapazarı and 276 in Istanbul. List of earthquakes in Turkey List of historical earthquakes
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1903 Manzikert earthquake
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The 1903 Manzikert earthquake struck Manzikert of nowadays Muş Province in eastern Turkey on 28 April. Registering a surface wave magnitude of 7.0, the earthquake originated from an active seismic zone. It killed 3,500 people and 20,000 animals, destroyed 12,000 homes, to this day, Turkey is threatened by major earthquakes – more than 100 earthquakes over 7.0 have taken place in the countrys known history. The country of Turkey is situated on a highly active section of the Eurasian Plate boundary, the country is mainly mountainous, approximately 85 percent of the country is at an elevation of 450 m or more. The entire country lies within a zone of deformation known as the Alpide belt. This zone of continental collision reaches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Himalaya Mountains and beyond and it has formed due to convergent movement between the Arabian, African, and Indian continental plates and the Eurasian plate. To the east of the junction of two faults, the Arabian Plate is in direct collision with the Eurasian Plate. This area is characterised by thrust faulting and was the area in which the 1903 event occurred, among the worlds deadliest earthquakes, the earthquake caused 3,500 direct fatalities. 20,000 animals were killed in the region of Manzikert-Patnos. Damage to a lesser extent reached Erzurum and Bitlis, on August 6, additional damage took place and people were injured when an aftershock rocked the same region. Major earthquakes have taken place in the country as early as 411 B. C. In the 20th century,58 major destructive earthquakes took place – in total, they have killed more than 100,000 people, injured 150,000, more than 100 earthquakes of magnitude 7 or greater have taken place in the country historically. List of earthquakes in 1903 List of earthquakes in Turkey
