Masonry building behaviors during the February 6–12, 2017 Ayvacik-Çanakkale Earthquakes

Masonry structures in the rural areas of Turkey often damaged due to moderate and big earthquakes. After every earthquake many scientists made field investigations on the earthquake performance of these structures and gave many useful information on construction techniques. However, the newly constructed masonry buildings are still not suitable for the suggested techniques, and they are still in danger against future earthquakes. Five moderate earthquakes of moment magnitude Mw 5.3, 5.3, 5.2, 5.0, and 5.3 struck the Ayvacik-Çanakkale District of Turkey between 6 and 12 February, 2017. More than a thousand of aftershocks were occurred and most of the masonry buildings in the villages nearby main shock epicenter were affected. The author went to the earthquake field and investigated the earthquake performances of masonry structures. This paper presents the recorded acceleration data, acceleration response spectra, and the seismological aspects of these earthquakes. Besides, case studies of damaged stone masonry buildings, and failure mechanisms are discussed with illustrated photos which were taken during the field investigations. It is concluded that the damaged masonry buildings were not designed and constructed properly in accordance with the Turkish building codes or similar specifications.