Damages on reinforced concrete buildings due to consecutive earthquakes in Van

Consecutive earthquakes occurred on October 23rd, 2011 in Ercis and on November 9th, 2011 in Edremit that are townships located 90. km and 18. km far from Van city in Turkey, respectively. A total of 28,000 buildings were damaged or collapsed in the city center and the surrounding villages after the Ercis earthquake. This number reached 35,000 after the Edremit earthquake. In the area where the earthquakes occurred, almost all the reinforced concrete buildings were affected.This study presents field observations of damages on reinforced concrete buildings due to the consecutive earthquakes that occurred in Van, Turkey. Damages appearing in the buildings may occur due to several reasons such as site effect, poor construction quality, poor concrete strength, poor detailing in beam-column joints, detailing of stronger beam than column, soft stories, weak stories, inadequate reinforcement, short lap splices, incorrect end hook angle, and short columns. Aftershocks also caused progressive damages on the buildings within 17 days after the earthquakes. According to the results of this study, most of the damaged buildings were not designed and constructed according to the Turkish earthquake code, the so-called Specification for Buildings to be built in Seismic Zones.