06 February 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes (Mw = 7.8 and 7.6) field observations and preliminary assessment report

Türkiye, in Pazarcık and Elbistan districts of Kahramanmaraş, two major earthquakes occurred on 6 February 2023. 11 provinces were directly affected by these earthquakes, and 239,151 buildings were severely damaged or destroyed. In this article, many structural deficiencies and errors, such as the quality of building materials, soft and weak storeys, short column effect, strong beams-weak columns, oversized and heavy overhangs, frame discontinuity, reinforced concrete columns with insufficient stirrup, constructive details, and workmanship errors are observed, and the earthquake regulations requirements are compared. Thus, an overview of the damages observed after earthquakes is provided. The findings revealed that many heavily damaged or collapsed buildings did not meet Türkiye building earthquake code requirements.