Here are parts of some of the correspondence regarding the fireball
/glow that was reportedly associated with the Turkey earthquake of August
19. You might find the entire exchange interesting. The net result
was that the samples never arrived at the Smithsonian (where Wunderman
was stationed) and no analysis could be done there.
That some sort of glow or fireball did occur before the earthquake
and tsunami is apparent, however from the reports of Polut Gulkan,
a structural engineer and trained scientist who interviewed many witnesses
who all had the same story.

The original report from Erol Erkman, Turkey (Sept 1, 1999):

We are really having a rough time down here in Turkey. This is a nightmare
come true on a grand scale . Just wanted to share some activity that has
skiped everybodies attention.On the eve of the quake, fisherman from a
small village near Cinarcik on the Marmara sea, when trying to collect
their fishnets that they have left in the sea that night at a depth of
approx. 500 meters, found out that it was impossible to collect them. After
struggling for a couple of hours they managed to pull all fishnets up with a
lot of rubble rocks and fried fish. Most of the nets seemed burnt and the
rocks looked magmatic. Since most fisherman sleep in their boats they say
that during the quake they saw the sea turned red with fireballs.
Time was 03.02 am.
Question is : is their a kind of volcanic activity happening below the
Marmara sea that we do not know about ? if u have any data please send us

location: 40.79 N ,29.04E

From Roz Helz - Turkey, Sept. 2, 1999
I told my usual lunch group about this report today, and Robin Brett, who
was there offered to bring the subject up when he called Celal Sengor in
Istanbul this afternoon. Sengor is an expert on the tectonics of the
region. The word from Sengor in Istanbul:

He had heard of this report from the fishermen at Cinarcik. It describes
the consequences of one of many submarine landslides that were triggered by
the quake. There are many hot springs along the coast, and it may be that
the landslides caused release of enough hot water to kill some fish. They
would be boiled, not fried.

The luminescence he says is often seen before quakes.
I don't know that one would expect luminescence
over water rather than land but who knows?]

Anyway, that's the word from one man in Istanbul.

Reply from Rick Wunderbar, September 2, 1999

Roz--Good work; this is a big help in helping me understand the situation.
I had head of the luminesence but thought that such sightings were quite
rare. In thinking about the report today I realized that some of the
advocates of an electromagentic technique to predict earthquakes (called
the "VAN method") have had their best results in Greece. Still, I am
hoping to get some samples , if they exist, of the net and some of the
rocks that were retreved.

Reply from Rick Wunderbar to Erol, September 3, 1999

Thanks for your rapid reply and for offering to send me the samples. I
realize they you are under great stress due to the recent earthquake and
aftershocks. We are really keen to learn more about the fishermen's
experience as you described in your initial e-mail.

I will send you a discussion by a collegue who is far more knowlegable than
I about the area. Yes, it could be related to the earthquake, although one
must be very careful to be sure not to confuse the picture, and there have
been very few similar events documented before this making your job of
capturing the exact statements of the fishermen and the actual samples all
the more important.

Scientists put a great deal of weight on observations and samples; we are
less quick to come to a conclusion and might look at samples for a long
time before making any comment. Realize too, that we depend on you to
provide the best objective insights into what happened that night out on
the Sea of Marmara. Also, I don't read Turkish, but there are translators
here who can. I would like to see as many news articles as possible on the
topic.

I can wire you a small amount of money to cover the cost of mailing the
fish net samples (say 0.5 square meters) and dredged-up rock samples (say
two samples, fist sized). If possible, please put the samles of say 2 or 3
dead, heated fish into a clean wrapping and put them in a freezer.
Besides these samples, here are some basic questions that come to mind.
You don't need to answer them all right now, but it may provide some things
to think about:

--Can you get the names and mailing addresses of the fishermen so we can
interview them later?
I would like to ask them more questions--Were there any other observations
they may have left out? How did they manage to hoist rocks in their nets?
Were all the rocks of the same basic color and apparent type? Did anything
float up to the surface on its own accord?
--How accurate is their navigational fix? I am uncertain of the units (are
they degrees and decimal degrees or degrees and minutes?).
--Were samples of the fish saved (for example, stored in a freezer)?
--Did the glow seen appear to everyone at the scene? What color was it?
Did it appear to move? to rise above the water surface.

We are most interested to see the samples, especially the rocks
(fragments), if available. By the way, have any local geologists from area
Universities been involved with this? They might be busy with other
aspects of the earthquake, but their ideas might be helpful.

Thanks so much for helping us try and understand what happened.

Reply from Erol Erkman to Rick Wunderman Sept. 3, 1999

this is erol erkmen ... will try to find and send you the sapmles and piceses
of net,its diffucult to teranslate the local news and tv programs.but there
are alot.the coordinates that belong to the sismic activities are in that
area and there are a lot of sismic activities in that area .It was witnessed
with alot of people on the day of big eratquake (time is 03.02AM local time)
as soon as ... get the samples ... will get in touch with you,if you have any
questions please ask.dos it have any relation with the eartquake?

tomorrow ... will go to the area and collect samples,if .. can get samples
can send them through DHL payable in your country,for that reason no need
for money .After I find the samples we can discus everything later.I mean
these buisnes only for couriosity.

From Polut Gulkan, Structural Engineer, Turkey Sept. 4, 1999

Lowell,

I am flabbergasted. I've never known of any volcanic activity anywhere in
the Sea of Marmara region. I have spoken with many people near Degirmendere,
as have others, and they all say there was a red fireball simultaneous with a
drawdown of the level of water in the Izmit Gulf and the ground shaking. This
sounds almost preposterous to me, but the individuals are all sane.

Any rational explanations?

From Erol Ekman, September 3, 1999

dear rick.today, I was in that area for getting samples. I talk to many
fisherman I couldnt find the fisherman who has the rocks samples. I found
the cameraman who took the footage and I got the address of the fisherman
lately.there are some japanees investigators aroun the area some others rom
turkey. I think it will be quite difficult to find the samples because its a
complicated situation. I got the feeling that they may not give the
samples.but I still working on it.unfortunately it is too late for the fish
samples.its more than two weeks.now the sea water is 35 C degress.and there
are a lot off geografical changes in the area.we took some photos I will
forward them to you later.there are some other interesting situations that
we can discuss later.the buildings that are 6 storey high is now under the
water.and the depth is increased about 200 meters . I will send you more
details later.it seems that we can find the samples some what next week or
so.

From Rick Wunderbar to Erol , September 7, 1999

In reviewing the text I (RW) just noticed the message "I got the rock
samples" for the first time. That may mean there could be some samples,
allegedly "magmatic" in nature. I plan to tell Erol to show them to local
investigators prior to sending them here. They may need them and they
could have considerable time value that I don't wish to loose by having
them shipped through the mail. Trouble is, I have made no direct contact
with the investigators as yet. If any of you have contacts working on this
in the field, please contact me ASAP. They should see these samples first
hand, and if possible, discuss their origin with the people who collected
them.

It is vital to do this prior to sending them here, since it could change
the way people view this event. Besides, as I mentioned before, its really
nice to have as much of the evidence in one place, and the logical place in
this case is clearly in Turkey. I realize that you have probably exhausted
considerable energy in obtaining the samples. Do you have contact with the
people who originally collected them?

If you can not find the investigators I will e-mail to contacts in Japan
and try and find them for you. Incidentally, more people in the US and
Europe and becoming alerted to your original report. We are all keen to
learn more--and most importantly we appreciate your hard work in following
up on the eye witnesses observations, the samples they may have collected,
etc.

From Rick Wunderbar, September 7, 1999

Thanks for letting me know what is happening. If local investigators are
working on it, great. It is probably better if the samples stay there,
with the field evidence such as the shifts in topography. Keep me posted,
its a really interesting story and I and other earth scientists would like
to learn more, especially about possible thermal effects possibly
associated with hydrothermal or even volcanic processes.

Reply from Rick Wunderbar, September 7, 1999

I received the same report from Roz Helz (USGS, Reston) in the middle of
last week. I would have told more folks about it except that I was
pretty skeptical after seeing the "project ALP" web site that the author
(Erol Erkmen) is openly affiliated with. We have had a series of e-mails
back and forth on this topic (I'll be glad to send you copies, or will
put you on the list for future correspondance and I will send the latest
message and my reply in a separate message). Sofar as I have learned,
the evidence for magmatic material is lacking. Unfortunately, Erol has
stated that it is too late to collect samples of the "cooked" fish.
Apparently, multiple observers did see a visible glow associted with the
earthquake, but this is not necessarily from an eruptive source; it could
be a geoelectrical effect sometimes explained as the result of
piezioelectricity due to strain on quartz around the time of the
rupture.