Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
ARABIAN JOURNAL OF GEOSCIENCES, cilt.13, sa.19, 2020 (SCI-Expanded)
Over 60% of the countries just like Turkey have suffered from earthquakes. The observations have revealed that the buildings/civil engineering structures in/on the rocky grounds did not get damaged by the earthquakes. The major reason behind it is that the modulus of elasticity of saturated rocks is million times greater than that of saturated soil units. Furthermore, while the saturated soil units are susceptible to liquefaction (shear strength approaches to zero) at varying degrees, rock units do not get liquefied. None of the structures on the rocky ground has been affected by the recent destructive earthquakes studied by the authors and/or their colleagues in Turkey and abroad. As also has been highlighted by Marmara (17 August 1999) and Van (23 October 2011) earthquakes, the civil engineering structures in/on rocky grounds, even adjacent to the epicenter, have not been affected by the destructive earthquakes in respective regions that are seismically active. It is quite explicit that the number of casualties in the settlements in/on rocky grounds is zero. In Turkey, the land required for housing is 1% of the country. However, 57% of the area is available for construction. The remaining 43% consists of forest, restricted zones, and the lands of fertile soil which are composed of soil plains and landslides. Thus, the earthquake disasters can be overwhelmed by effective land use planning.