The 2012 East Azerbaijan earthquakes – also known as the Ahar earthquakes – occurred on 11 August 2012, at 16:53
Iran Standard Time
Iran Standard Time (IRST) or Iran Time (IT) is the time zone used in Iran. Iran uses a UTC offset UTC+03:30. IRST is defined by the 52.5 degrees east meridian, the same meridian which defines the Iranian calendar and is the official meridian of I ...
, near the cities of
Ahar
Ahar ( fa, italic=yes, اهر, az, اهر) is a city and capital of Ahar County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. According to the 2016 census, Ahar was the fourth most populated city of the province with a population of 100,641 in 20,844 fam ...
and
Varzaqan
Varzaqan ( fa, ورزقان; also Romanized as Varzeqān and Warzagan; formerly, Karzigan (Persian: كَرزيگَن), also Romanized as Kārzigān and Karzygan) is a city in the Central District of Varzaqan County, East Azerbaijan provinc ...
in
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 ...
's
East Azerbaijan Province
East Azerbaijan Province ( fa, استان آذربایجان شرقی ''Āzarbāijān-e Sharqi''; az-Arab, شرقی آذربایجان اوستانی) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is located in Iranian Azerbaijan, bordering Armenia, ...
, approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Tabriz.
They comprised a
doublet
Doublet is a word derived from the Latin ''duplus'', "twofold, twice as much",