Damages to unreinforced masonry buildings by the Van earthquakes of 23 October and 9 November 2011

Van, a city in Eastern Anatolian Turkey, was hit by two earthquakes with magnitudes of Mw = 7.2 and Mw = 5.6 in October and November 2011. Both earthquakes caused extensive damage to many buildings. Unreinforced masonry buildings, especially in rural areas, suffered from those earthquakes extensively as in many other cases observed in Turkey during other previous earthquakes. This paper presents a site survey of damaged masonry buildings. Reasons for the wide spread damages are discussed in the paper.