Mw 7.6 Izmit, Turkey
updated 24 October 2021

On 17 August 1999 a major earthquake occurred in Izmit, Turkey at a depth of 15 km. The seismic event occurred at 00:01:38 UTC and had an estimated moment magnitude (Mw) 7.6.

Four planetary alignments from 11 to 14 August preceded the earthquake, most notably Mercury-Earth-Neptune converging with Sun-Mercury-Jupiter on the 14th. Lunar geometry peaked on the same day when the Moon made 45° and 135° within four hours with Mars and Saturn respectively. The Sun-Venus-Uranus alignment on the 12th was also significant as it occurred within 4.5 days of the earthquake. 

Mars-Earth-Saturn         1999-08-11, 12:24:09   46°53'19"
Sun-Venus-Uranus          1999-08-12, 19:18:55  314°52'33"
Mercury-Earth-Neptune     1999-08-14, 11:06:36  302°28'29"
Sun-Mercury-Jupiter       1999-08-14, 20:27:45   23°31'43"
Sun-Mercury-Saturn        1999-08-17, 21:30:23   40°48'01"
Mercury-Venus-Neptune     1999-08-19, 23:39:32  302°34'21"

Moon-Earth-Uranus         1999-08-11,  4:59:03  314°41'01"
Earth-Moon-Sun            1999-08-11, 11:18:55  138°22'28"
Earth-Moon-Venus          1999-08-12, 10:27:05  151°41'46"
Moon-Earth-Jupiter        1999-08-17,  8:17:43   34°53'48"

Earth:   Moon-Saturn      1999-08-14, 17:08:06  135°00'00"
Earth:   Moon-Mars        1999-08-14, 20:24:13   45°00'00"
SSGI chart
SSGI depiction of planetary (PG) and lunar (LG) geometry