Domino Collapse in Urban Settings
A 19th Century Mosque Collapsed During the 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence
Abide Aşıkoğlu (TU Delft - Materials- Mechanics- Management & Design, TU Delft - Applied Mechanics)
Aldy Riza Dhiandra (Student TU Delft)
Paul Korswagen (TU Delft - Applied Mechanics)
Fikret Kuran (Promer Consultancy and Engineering Inc.)
Özgür Avşar (Eskişehir Technical University)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
The seismic vulnerability of historical masonry structures has been extensively studied, with efforts primarily focused on assessing their earthquake resistance. However, such studies often consider these structures in isolation, disregarding their urban context. In densely built environments, the collapse of adjacent buildings during an earthquake can have a devastating impact on nearby heritage structures, even if they are inherently capable of withstanding seismic loads. On February 6, 2023, two major earthquakes, with magnitudes of Mw 7.7 and Mw 7.6, occurred nine hours apart, affecting the southeastern region of Türkiye. Post-earthquake site investigations revealed that the collapse of the historical Adıyaman Grand Mosque was likely triggered by the failure of a substandard reinforced concrete building in close proximity. This paper aims to investigate the failure mechanism of the Adıyaman Grand Mosque in a broader context. Preliminary study highlights the importance of conducting an extended analysis for heritage structures in urban environments, for reasons such as: (i) the complex interactions between buildings in densely populated areas during earthquakes, (ii) the detrimental effect of the failure of a nearby building on heritage structures, and (iii) the development of more effective mitigation strategies to protect and preserve heritage structures in such environments.