Earthquake monitoring centre
Turkey is susceptible to seismic catastrophes because of the country's geological setting. The North Anatolian fault produced seven large earthquakes in Turkey between 1939 and 1999. The most destructive of these earthquakes struck northwest Turkey on 17 August 1999, killing over 17,000 people and generating a local tsunami within the enclosed Sea of Marmara.
A National Data Centre was established in Turkey in November 2002, which is run by the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute of the Bosphoros University. Participants were invited to pay a site visit to the institute during the workshop. “Kandilli's area of expertise is monitoring earthquakes and sending the information to relevant government organs,” said the director of the Kandilli Observatory, Professor Gülay Altay. “While the technology for detecting nuclear tests is slightly different than that for finding earthquakes -- the sensors are deeper and require more intricate maintenance -- Kandilli's duty within the framework of the treaty is to collect all the data and send it to the International Data Centre (IDC) in Vienna.” The IDC processes and analyses monitoring data originating from the 337 facilities that comprise the IMS. Processing and analysis results are then presented as lists of events, bulletins and reports to Member States.
Foreign Minister asked to help promote CTBT ratification
- Primary seismic station PS43 was certified on 22 December 2003.
At the invitation of Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tóth met with H.E. Ali Babacan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who reiterated Turkey’s support for the CTBT and for the activities being carried out by the CTBTO. Tóth briefed him on ratification progress and requested his assistance in promoting signatures and ratifications in those countries where Turkey may be able to exert some influence.
Tóth also visited the sub-array of primary seismic station (PS43) at Belbaşı and the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, where he made a presentation on the CTBT and the establishment of the IMS. He explained the importance of the verification regime not only in terms of monitoring the Earth, sea and atmosphere as the last line of defense against the testing of nuclear weapons, but also its potential to serve a variety of important civil and scientific applications.
