Quake Rattles Iran’s Northern Area
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A 4.7-magnitude earthquake struck an area in Iran’s northern province of Semnan on Thursday.
According to the Seismological Center of the Institute of Geophysics of Tehran University, two quakes hit the city of Damghan at around 11 am local time on Thursday morning, the bigger of which measured 4.7 on the Richter scale.
According to the director of Semnan Province’s Crisis Management Headquarters, the temblors have occurred in Kalateh region, nearly 100 kilometers from the provincial capital.
Iraj Raeesian told ILNA that there has been no reports of damages or casualties after at least six earthquakes since Thursday morning.
He also noted that local rescue team are on the alert.
Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, being crossed by several major fault lines that cover at least 90% of the country. As a result, earthquakes in Iran occur often and are destructive.
On November 12, the western province of Kermanshah was hit by a major 7.3-magnitude quake that killed 620 people according to the latest toll.
The deadliest quake in Iran's modern history happened in June 1990. It destroyed the northern cities of Rudbar, Manjil, and Lushan, along with hundreds of villages, killing an estimated 37,000 people.
Bam in the country’s southeastern province of Kerman witnessed a strong quake in December 2003 which killed 31,000 people.
