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On January 27, 2003 at 5:26am UTC in Pulumur, Turkey an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale struck in a sparsely populated area. One person was killed and several others were injured as they jumped out of windows when the temblor hit. Several buildings were reported damaged and was felt in many of the surrounding cities.

Date-Time	2003 01 27 05:26:22 UTC
Location	39.48N 39.78E
Depth	10.0 kilometers
Magnitude	6.1
Region	TURKEY
Reference	25 miles (35 km) SE of Erzincan, Turkey 55 miles (90 km) NW of Bingol, Turkey 60 miles (100 km) NNE of Elazig, Turkey 370 miles (600 km) E of ANKARA, Turkey
Source	USGS NEIC

Tectonic Setting

Turkey is a tectonically active region that experiences frequent destructive earthquakes. At a large scale, the tectonics of the region near this earthquake are controlled by the collision of the Arabian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. At a more detailed level, the tectonics become quite complicated. A large piece of continental crust almost the size of Turkey, called the Anatolian block, is being squeezed to the west. The block is bounded to the north by the North Anatolian Fault and to the south-east by the East Anatolian fault. The recent earthquake occurred near the east end of the North Anatolian Fault. It is not known at present if the earthquake occurred on the North Anatolian Fault proper or on a related subsidiary fault.

This earthquake is a reminder of the many deadly earthquakes that Turkey has suffered in the recent past. The devastating Kocaeli (Izmit) earthquake of 1999 (M = 7.6) broke a section of the North Anatolian Fault 1,500 km to the west of this quake and killed 17,000 people, injured 50,0000, and left 500,000 homeless. Today's (January 27, 2003) earthquake occurred within or near the source region of the M = 6.6 earthquake of March 13, 1992, which killed hundreds of people and left thousands homeless in Erzincan. Another even larger earthquake struck Erzincan in 1939. The magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed an estimated 33,000 people. Erzincan is about 25 miles to the northwest of the epicenter of today's earthquake.