Our Turkish hosts and colleagues took us to dinner this past night at Asansor restaurant. Asansor means elevator in Turkish: almost the same word in French. The elevator was built in 1908 although there is a modern one inside the structure now. The elevator is needed because the cliff is the fault scarp of the Izmir fault, which is active (as suggested by the near vertical cliff). Along the strike of this fault there are hot springs which heat the home of the head of the Seislab at Dokuz Eylul university: he was one of our hosts.

It is a bit problematic to have a fault like that running through a city, but I suppose Los Angeles and the Bay area have the same, except worse on some levels.

Chris

• Izmir fault and elevator