The 2005 Zarand earthquake affected several villages in the
Kerman province of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
on February 22 at . The shock measured 6.4 on the
moment magnitude scale
The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...
and had a maximum
Mercalli intensity
The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the eff ...
of VIII (''Severe'').
Zarand is located 740 km southeast of
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
. The maximum recorded
peak ground acceleration
Peak ground acceleration (PGA) is equal to the maximum ground acceleration that occurred during earthquake shaking at a location. PGA is equal to the amplitude of the largest absolute acceleration recorded on an wikt:accelerogram, accelerogram at a ...
was 0.51
''g'' at Shirinrud dam. The United States'
National Earthquake Information Center The National Earthquake Information Center (abbreviated NEIC) is part of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) located on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. The NEIC has three main missions:
* First, the NEIC determ ...
and the Belgian'
Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) is a research unit of the University of Louvain (UCLouvain). It is part of the School of Public Health located on the UCLouvain Brussels Woluwe campus, in Brussels, Belgium.
CRED has ...
both show that 612 died and 1,411 were injured in the event.
Damage and casualties
Four villages, each having around 1,000 inhabitants, were reported completely destroyed, and 30% to 70% of buildings in more than 40 villages were reported damaged. It is estimated that the population of the affected area exceeds 30,000. A great portion of population of several villages are severely affected because of poor condition of buildings. The epicenter of the quake was in a mountainous and sparsely inhabited area. It is believed that the death toll could have been much higher if the quake had stricken a more densely populated area like
Bam.
Previous events
The region of Zarand is close to an active
fault, known as the Kuhbanan fault in the north east of the city. Its trend is northwest-southeast and its length is 160 km. Zarand has been hit by several quakes in the last 70 years, with the oldest recorded one going back to 1933. On December 21, 1977, the area was hit by a
6.2-magnitude earthquake leaving 521 dead and 3 villages completely destroyed. On December 26, 2003,
another devastating earthquake happened in
Bam, 200 km southwest of Zarand, which is in the same province.
See also
*
List of earthquakes in 2005
This is a list of earthquakes in 2005. Only earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above are included, unless they resulted in significant damage or casualties, or were notable for some other reason. All dates are listed according to UTC time. To prevent ...
*
List of earthquakes in Iran
Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, being crossed by several major faults that cover at least 90% of the country. As a result, earthquakes in Iran occur often and are destructive.
Geology and history
The Iranian ...
References
External links
*
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is a worldwide humanitarian aid organization that reaches 160 million people each year through its 192-member National Societies. It acts before, during and after disast ...
bulletins on Zarand earthquake (
PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
files)
No.1No.2No.3 an
No.4M6.4 - central Iran–
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
Earthquake Near Zarand, Iran–
NASA Earth Observatory
NASA Earth Observatory is an online publishing outlet for NASA which was created in 1999. It is the principal source of satellite imagery and other scientific information pertaining to the climate and the Environment (biophysical), environment whi ...
Hundreds killed in Iranian quake– ''BBC News''
Race to reach Iran quake victims– ''BBC News''
Rain slows Iran quake aid effort– ''BBC News''
'No-one knew what to do'– ''BBC News''
Brief characteristics of Active faults in Kerman Province– National Geoscience Database of Iran
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{{DEFAULTSORT:2005 Zarand Earthquake
2005 disasters in Iran
Zarand earthquake
Zarand earthquake
Earthquakes in Iran
February 2005 events in Asia
Kerman Province