Türkiye was shaken by 53,262 earthquakes this year, a rhythm that translates into six tremors every hour and 146 each day, making 2025 the second most seismically active year since the devastating Feb. 6, 2023 earthquakes that hit the country’s south.
Bülent Özmen, a disaster management expert at Gazi University’s Faculty of Engineering, said the figures once again lay bare the scale of Türkiye’s seismic exposure.
“When we look at the data, we can clearly say that Türkiye is shaken by an average of six earthquakes per hour and 146 per day,” Özmen noted, adding that the total number of recorded earthquakes this year reached 53,262.
Of these, 437 earthquakes exceeded magnitude 4. The breakdown reveals a steady escalation, with 413 quakes between magnitude 4 and 5, 20 between 5 and 6 and five between 6 and 6.9.
“This tells us that, on average, a magnitude-4 earthquake occurs every day, a magnitude 5 or stronger quake every 15 days and a magnitude 6 or above event roughly every 73 days,” Özmen said.
The seismic map of 2025 placed the northwestern province of Balıkesir at its epicenter, driven largely by intense activity in the Sındırgı district. It was followed by Kütahya, Muğla, Malatya and Kahramanmaraş.
The year’s most significant single event, however, struck on April 23, when a 6.2-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Silivri once again reminded Istanbul of its persistent vulnerability.
Sındırgı emerged as a chapter of its own. Two 6.1-magnitude earthquakes on Aug. 10 and Oct. 27 were followed by nearly 21,000 temors in just 4.5 months — an unprecedented figure for a single district in Türkiye’s seismic history.
“Residents were shaken by an average of 146 earthquakes per day,” Özmen said, stressing the need for close monitoring.
Despite the scale of activity, fatalities remained limited to three deaths and 594 injuries, all caused by panic.
“Even earthquakes above magnitude 5 can cause serious damage,” Özmen warned, calling for accelerated urban transformation, stricter land-use planning along active fault lines and broader disaster awareness education — not as a reaction to catastrophe, but as a lasting civic reflex.
