1970 Gediz earthquake
7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Kütahya in western Turkey on March 29, 1970
The 1970 Gediz earthquake, also known as the 1970 Kütahya-Gediz earthquake (Turkish: 1970 Gediz depremi) struck western Turkey on 28 March at about 23:02 local time with an estimated magnitude of 7.2 on the Mw scale.
Geology
The earthquake was active on the "Turgutlu-Sındırgı-Simav-Gediz fault" line in the second-degree earthquake zone. The earthquake occurred due to the vertival movements of a fault line extending in the northwest direction from Akçaalan-Kayaköy and Dereköy to Hisarcık and the fault line extending in the direction of Çomaklar-Çukurören villages. The earthquake area was formed 2.5 million years ago. After the earthquake, a 7 cm (2.8 in) horizontal and 15–20 cm (5.9–7.9 in) vertical-slip fissure with a largest opening of 50 cm (20 in) was detected at the foot of Seyranbaşı Hill near Yunuslar Village. A 10–15 cm (3.9–5.9 in) vertical-slip fissure was observed in Çavdarhisar. Tension crack systems were detected at the junction of Gediz River and Bulacık Creek to the south of Gediz district center and around Çayçinge Village. According to the Richter scale, it was measured as 7.2 in Gediz, 7 in Emet, 6 in Simav and 5 in Kütahya.
Damage and casualties
The earthquake killed 1,086 people, injured 1,260, while 9,473 buildings were destroyed or severely damaged leaving around 26,000 people homeless in Gediz. Many people were burned alive as fires broke out from overturned stoves.
“1970 Gediz earthquake” enters the record as 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Kütahya in western Turkey on March 29, 1970. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Gediz, earthquake and 2-magnitude can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1348861. Authority coordinates are 39.200, 29.500. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970.
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This entry incorporates text from “1970 Gediz earthquake” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.