On Sunday October 23, 2011 an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 at 5 km depth hit the province of Van in eastern Turkey, followed by a series of powerful aftershocks of magnitudes up to 5.6.
Several municipalities around the Van Lake were affected. Especially Bitlis on the west side and and Ercis on the north side of the lake were hit severely.
The earthquake killed more than 600 people and caused more than 4000 injuries.
On the same day, the pre-operational version of the GMES Emergency Management Service powered by the SAFER project was triggered by the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), operated by the European Commission.
During the days that followed the disaster, SAFER produced a set of geographic reference maps covering several areas (Guvenli/Alakoy, Van, Ercis, Bitlis...) as well as damage assessment maps for the areas of Ercis and Bitlis.
- Example Reference Map
- Example Damage Assessment Map (Ercis)
- Example Damage Assessment Map (Bitlis)
(Credits SAFER/DLR)