Failures of masonry and adobe buildings during the June 23, 2011 Maden-(Elazığ) earthquake in Turkey

This paper evaluates the failures of masonry and adobe buildings during the June 23, 2011, Maden (Elazığ) earthquake. Maden is a township approximately 80 km away from Elazığ city in Turkey. The magnitude of the earthquake was announced as ML = 5.3 by the Earthquake Division of the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (DEMA). Most of masonry and adobe buildings in Maden and the neighboring settlements had been damaged severely at this moderate earthquake. In this paper, reasons of damages and failures of these structures which are lack of engineering services were examined and explained in detail.

► Failures of masonry and adobe buildings were investigated. ► Characteristic parameters of the ground motion were presented. ► Reasons of damages of masonry and adobe buildings were examined and discussed.