Earthquakes

Last Monday (11th February 2008) a light earthquake (Richter 4.0) shook Israel and Lebanon. This brought back memories of the great earthquake which hit Istanbul in 1999 (Richter 7.4). This is my account of the episode in the Times’ Higher Educational Supplement of 3rd September 1999.
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DON'S DIARY
Istanbul, 16-22 August 1999

Monday 16 August
Istanbul airport is unbelievably crowded and chaotic, and feels hot even after our flight from Tel Aviv where it was well over 30 degrees. I'd just spent a week trying to rejuvenate an old collaboration at the Haifa Technion, and was now about to attend a theoretical physics conference at Bogazici (Bosphorus) University in Istanbul. The great thing - I assure the Accompanying Person (Paulette - daughter Annabel had arrived earlier)- is that there will be the usual cohort of graduate students to meet us and bring us to our hotel. No such luck. Crestfallen, we eventually find a taxi to take us to the Grand Hotel Tarabya. Just too late to attend the welcome reception but, relaxing on a balcony overlooking the Golden Horn,who cares? A good night's sleep, and I'll be fit to start work first thing in the morning.

Tuesday 17 August
Am awakened to what I take to be the sound of a mechanical excavator outside the window. Rather strange for 3.00 in the morning. Even stranger as we are on the 5th floor. And why is the bed moving backwards and forwards? Slowly realise that this must be my first earthquake - go to the balcony to see what is going on. Paulette is also awake by this time so we dress (no sense of urgency here) and descend by the stairs - our one concession to the possibility that the elevators may not be safe. Little knots of colleagues in varying states of undress are gathered at a safe distance from the building; although the staff did not evacuate the building they are not letting anyone back in. We try to find out what is going on from locals sitting in their cars listening to the radio. Everyone thinks that this may have been a fair-sized earthquake - people are crying - epicentre seems to have been at Izmit - about 90 kilometres away. We spend the rest of the night outside, although the hotel does supply drinks and sandwiches. Much discussion as to whether the conference will continue or not, but in the event we all set off from the hotel at 8.30 next morning for the University, only slightly later than planned.
We are by now all aware that this may have been a fairly major earthquake, and in my opening remarks, as a member of the international advisory committee, I pay tribute to the fact that the local organisers managed to start with a delay of only 15 minutes - and this was due to their having to reorganise the transport from the hotel. The first speaker of the session that I was chairing - a rather distinguished senior mathematician from Poland - confessed that as he had the habit of preparing his talk during the previous night, and was unable to do so this time, he would have to repeat an old talk which was not the one programmed. I subsequently discovered that indeed he had gone to the lavatory at 3.00 am and on lowering his posterior to the seat was dismayed to find the seat rising up to meet it. I also gave my presentation on this first day - the lack of sleep seems to have added to the adrenaline flow.

Wednesday 18 August
The scale of the disaster is now becoming apparent, and it is clear that there have been some victims but the number is unknown. We hold a minute's silence. The sessions continue much as usual, but there is a feeling of quiet apprehension in the air.

Thursday 19 August
I assume that I have fully recovered from the events of the previous days, and on seeing the coach waiting to take us to the conference run through the hotel plate glass door, which was unfortunately closed at the time. Spend the next 3 hours on the bed clutching an ice-pack to a large protuberance on my forehead.
Afternoon, the conference boat trip on the Bosphorus, and a chance to talk to colleagues. Am amazed at how irrational physicists can be when they imagine their personal safety is at stake. The Japanese delegates are much in demand for their expertise. Apparently with this type of earthquake the aftershock can be of comparable magnitude - the original tremor was announced to be 6.8 but then re-evaluated at 7.4 on the Richter Scale. And an aftershock was expected that night. Most of the delegates spend the night outside again -apart from those at our hotel, whose staff did not consider it worthwhile - and there was indeed a 5.4 tremor.

Friday 20th August
On advice, try to reconfirm our return tickets. Turkish Airlines inform me that there is a problem - and that they have sold our seats and that all flights out of Istanbul are full. After some frantic phone calls back and forth from England - I get confirmed seats. But it seemed a near thing.

Saturday 21st August
Colleagues quietly exchange disaster stories at breakfast. Have you heard that there is typhus and cholera leaking into the water supplies? Is it safe to shower in the water or should we use mineral water for that too? The scenario is becoming ever more reminiscent of 'Death in Venice'.
In my closing speech of thanks to the organizers, I look forward to further meetings in the series in Russia, France, North America - but get the impression that the overwhelming feeling is one of relief that soon we will be back in the safety of our earthquake-free environments.

Sunday 22 August
On the drive to the airport through Istanbul we see no overt signs of damage, but the route is lined with tents and other makeshift living quarters in which people found it was safer to sleep. In retrospect, we were very lucky, having escaped almost intact - apart from a large bruise on my forehead which will undoubtedly make me a local hero at the Open University.