Huge constructions in the face of earthquakes How did Turkey build earthquake-resistant dams?

Because earthquakes occur in Turkey at an unknown rate, bringing with them potentially devastating effects, dams have been designed in recent decades to avoid failure and collapse by including seismic resistance standards when determining the location and type of a new dam, or reviewing the design and function of dams built in the past.

After the storm of earthquakes that struck the southern states of Turkey at dawn on February 6, and caused massive loss of life and property in 11 states, geologists called on officials to inspect the dams in the region immediately.

A few hours later, Vice President Fuat Oktay indicated in his statements that the dams in the earthquake zones had been examined, and added, "We have conducted and are still conducting inspections on all our dams in the entire region. We have no problems." Pointing out at the same time that they have started the gradual draining of water from the Malatya Sultansuyu Dam for precautionary purposes only.

In a related context, the Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Fahit Krishchi, indicated that there are approximately 150 dams and ponds in the earthquake zone, expressing the possibility of two types of leakage in dams and ponds. As far as I know, water is scarce, so preventive reinforcement work can be done.”

How are earthquake resistant dams designed?

There is a basic difference between the structural behavior of buildings and bridges on the one hand, and dams on the other. Under normal circumstances, buildings and bridges must mainly carry vertical loads, represented by the load of the structure itself (dead load) and some variable loads such as people, machines, cars, etc. (live load). But in the case of dams, the main load is the water load, which acts in the horizontal direction.

While damage to buildings and bridges from earthquakes is mainly due to the horizontal force produced by earthquake vibrations, dams are better suited to carrying horizontal loads than buildings and bridges. In order to prevent the rapid and uncontrolled leakage of water from the dam reservoir during a strong earthquake, the dam must be able to withstand strong ground shaking until the time of a severe earthquake.

Earthen dams, rock dams and concrete gravity dams usually perform better under seismic loading due to the nature of their installation than concrete sluice dams. Although these dams are more resistant in nature, this does not make them immune to the effects of earthquake loading, as designers must consider the potential impacts that earthquakes may have on the structure and include defensive design measures to counteract damage and prevent catastrophic failure.

Because earthquakes occur all over Turkey with unknown frequency and potentially devastating effects, dams are designed to avoid failure and collapse by including seismic resistance criteria when determining the location and type of new dam or reviewing the design and function of an existing dam. The type of dam, flexibility and redundancy in a seismically active area should also have a role in the evaluation process.

How did Turkey build earthquake-resistant dams?

According to the US National Earthquake Information Center ( USGS ) about 20,000 earthquakes occur around the world each year, including approximately 16 major earthquakes in the magnitude 7 range and above. Because Turkey is located above a seismically active area, successive Turkish governments have harnessed most of their engineers' expertise to construct earthquake-resistant dams in seismic fault areas.

And speaking of dams in the region located above the eastern Anatolia rift (the epicenter of the recent earthquake storm), Dr. Murat Inguiz , a lecturer at the Department of Geology at the Turkish Euphrates University, said earlier that the dams built in the eastern Anatolia region, which largely meet the country's electricity needs, can withstand. In front of earthquakes of 7 degrees and above and will not be damaged.

"The geological studies of the dams in the area, especially the Keban and Karakaya dams, have been very well done," Ingios added, noting that these dams were built on very hard limestone soil.