Earthquakes

Citation

(2005), "Earthquakes", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 14 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2005.07314aac.005

Earthquakes

28 May 2004Iran

A powerful earthquake rocked northern Iran yesterday, killing at least 20 people and damaging scores of villages, officials said. The US Geological Survey said the tremor had a magnitude of 6.2, powerful enough to bring down many buildings. The earthquake shook the capital Tehran, about 60 miles south of the epicentre, but Iran’s vice-president, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, said the Islamic Republic was not steeling itself for a big death toll. A government official in Tehran put the overall toll at 20 dead and 150 people injured. But reports from northern provinces suggested at least 28 had died.

29 May 2004. Yesterday’s relatively strong quake which hit a large part of Iran left 81 people injured in Karaj, a city 35 km west of Tehran, Head of the Natural Disasters Headquarters Ali Jahanbakhshi said here today. Jahanbakhshi told IRNA that 29 out of the injured have been hospitalized and the rest received outpatient treatment. He said the quake also left no casualty in Tehran. The official said 12 residential units were also damaged in villages of Asara, Oshan, Fasahm and Meygoon. He said that based on information available the quake damaged seven houses in Tehran. Another IRNA report says that at least 21 people were killed and 250 others injured in the Caspian province of Mazandaran as a result of the earthquake. An official has said the death toll is likely to rise. According to the governor of Kalardasht, two people were killed this morning after being hit by falling rocks at the Kalleh-No village. Deputy head for civil affairs of the governor generals office in Mazandaran, Naseeraddin Shahrokhi, said many cars are still buried on the Kandovan road. There were also three deaths and 20 injuries in the north-western Qazvin province, officials said. According to Shahrokhi, the quake destroyed part of the Kandovan road, cutting off 40 villages in the cities of Noshahr and Chalous. Seismological bases of Tehran University have recorded more than 65 aftershocks, ranging in magnitude between less than 5.5 and 1.6 degrees on the Richter scale, since the first quake hit.

30 May 2004. Giant boulders and crushed cars littered a mountain road today, a day after landslides were unleashed by a strong earthquake in northern and central Iran that killed at least 35 people and injured 250 others. The quake was felt in eight provinces in central and northern Iran, damaging more than 80 villages. Many of those killed were smashed by falling boulders or buried in their cars along the mountainous road that connects Tehran with the city of Chalous, about 55 miles north of the capital. Large cracks riddled the road, which was covered by rocks, giant boulders and damaged cars. Trucks were being used to haul away the cars. The landslides cut off road access to about a dozen villages, and army helicopters were ferrying rescue teams to assess the situation in those villages. The Iranian Red Crescent Society dispatched rescue teams with search dogs, as well as medical teams, tents and lanterns to the stricken areas. The official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted officials as saying about 50 villages were shaken. A total of 20 aftershocks were reported after yesterday’s quake, including one 4.6-magnitude temblor this morning in Bam that state-run Tehran television said caused “some damage but no casualties.” A weak tremor that lasted about five seconds was felt around midday today in Tehran, which has a population of about ten million people. Friday’s quake had cracked or shattered windows in the extreme north of the capital, more than 60 miles from the hardest-hit villages. Bijan Dastari, a senior Red Crescent Society official, said 35 people had been killed and 250 injured in the earthquake, measured at magnitude-6.2 by the US Geological Survey. Tehran’s University’s seismological centre measured the quake at 5.5 magnitude.

31 May 2004. Iran is observing three days of mourning for victims of earthquake Friday (May 28) that killed at least 45 people in the northern part of the country. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami today expressed condolences to families of the dead, which include the governor of quake-stricken Qazvin Province, killed along with eight others when their helicopter crashed during a survey of a disaster site. The strong tremor shook Iran late Friday, causing hundreds of injuries and extensive damage to more than 80 villages over a wide region north of the capital. The quake severed transportation and communication links to the area. Helicopters are being used to transport rescuers and supplies because many roads are impassable from landslides. The quake also shook buildings in Tehran, shattering windows and sending panicked residents into the streets.

1 June 2004. Two earthquakes measuring 4.4 and 3.3 degrees on the Richter scale hit the city of Masjed Soleiman in the south-western oil-rich province of Khuzestan today. The seismological base of Geophysics Institute of Tehran University registered the first quake at 0418, local time, 2348, GMT, yesterday, and another one at 1507, local time, 1037, GMT. There were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage caused by quakes.

7 June 2004. A fresh earthquake measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale hit the mountains north of Tehran, just over a week after a quake in the region left 35 dead and hundreds injured. The Geophysics Institute of Tehran University said it registered the mild tremor at 0831 hrs (0401, UTC), with the epicentre near the mountain town of Baladeh. According to the official news agency IRNA, there were no immediate reports of casualties or serious damage. Since May 28, when a quake measuring between 5.5 and 6.1 on the Richter scale hit the Elburz mountain range, some 297 aftershocks have been registered here, many of them felt in the capital itself.