I feel we'd be remiss not to read to the end of a paragraph:

However, engineers and scientists (such as Omer Emre) attributed the town escaping unscathed to geological factors, such as Erzin's relatively higher sea level compared to surrounding towns, and it being built upon harder ground, consisting of bedrock and coarser grains than sand, compared to softer, water-laden sediments like that of cities to the south.