The 2019 East Azerbaijan earthquake occurred at 03:17 local-time on November 8, 2019. This earthquake had a

moment magnitude 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 ...

of 5.9 and had a shallow depth of 20 km.

Tectonic setting

Iran lies within the complex zone of

continental collision In geology, continental collision is a phenomenon of plate tectonics that occurs at convergent boundaries. Continental collision is a variation on the fundamental process of subduction, whereby the subduction zone is destroyed, mountains prod ...

between the

Arabian Plate The Arabian Plate is a minor tectonic plate in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres. It is one of the three continental plates (along with the African and the Indian Plates) that have been moving northward in geological history and collidin ...

and the

Eurasian Plate The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...

, which extends from the Bitlis- Zagros belt in the south to the

Greater Caucasus mountains The Greater Caucasus ( az, Böyük Qafqaz, Бөјүк Гафгаз, بيوک قافقاز; ka, დიდი კავკასიონი, ''Didi K’avk’asioni''; russian: Большой Кавказ, ''Bolshoy Kavkaz'', sometimes translat ...

, the Absheron-Balkan Sill and the

Kopet Dag The Köpet Dag, Kopet Dagh, or Koppeh Dagh ( tk, Köpetdag; fa, کپه‌داغ), also known as the Turkmen-Khorasan Mountain Range, is a mountain range on the border between Turkmenistan and Iran that extends about along the border southeast o ...

mountains in the north. The collision between these plates deforms an area of ~ 3,000,000 km² of continental crust. It is one of the largest convergent deformation regions on Earth. In northwestern Iran, the Arabian Plate is moving northwards at about 20 mm per year relative to the Eurasian Plate, somewhat oblique to the plate boundary zone. The deformation in the area near Tabriz is dominated by the North Tabriz Fault, a WNW–ESE trending right-lateral

strike-slip fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

, which has been responsible for 7 historical earthquakes of magnitude greater than 6 since AD 858. Other known

active fault An active fault is a fault that is likely to become the source of another earthquake sometime in the future. Geologists commonly consider faults to be active if there has been movement observed or evidence of seismic activity during the last 10,0 ...

s include a W-E trending fault between the cities of Ahar and

Heris Heris ( fa, هريس; also Romanized as Herīs and Harīs; also known as Hiriz) is a city and capital of Heris County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 9,513, in 2,359 families. Heris is the center of one of ...

. This same setting caused a magnitude 6.4 earthquake in August 2012, killing at least 38 and injured more than 3,200, 268 of which died later in hospitals.

Earthquake

The magnitude 5.9 earthquake was a result of strike-slip faulting approximately 250 km to the northeast of the plate boundary between the

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

and

Eurasian Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...

plates. The focal mechanism indicated faulting in a left-lateral sense beneath

Mount Bozgush Mount Bozgush, Bozqush or Bozqush Kuh is a National Geographic Society (2005) ''National Geographic Atlas of the World'' (8th ed.) Washington, DC, volcanic mountain south of Sarab and north of Mianeh, East Azarbaijan Province, Iran that separat ...

. Aftershocks distribution suggest

rupture Rupture may refer to: General * Rupture (engineering), a failure of tough ductile materials loaded in tension Anatomy and medicine * Abdominal hernia, formerly referred to as "a rupture" * Achilles tendon rupture * Rupture of membranes, a "wate ...

along a NE–SW plane. It is thought to have ruptured along a buried parallel splay branch of the Shalgun–Yelimsi Fault. A fault dimension of 3.8 × 4.9 km² was estimated, buried beneath the surface. It produced a maximum slip of 0.8 meter at 5 km depth, while a large area of slip occurred at between 2 km and 11 km depth.

Impact

Damage and casualties

Six cities and 145 villages with a combined population of 121,307 were affected by the earthquake, thirty of them were completely destroyed. The most affected areas in

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, ...

were the towns of

Miyaneh Mianeh, Miana or Miyaneh city may refer to: Places Burkina Faso *Miana (Burkina), a village in Ouarkoye Department Iran * Mianeh, East Azerbaijan, a city in East Azerbaijan Province ** Mianeh (electoral district), a 5th electoral district in the ...

and Sarab. Some livestock were also killed due to the collapse of barns and sheds. The earthquake caused landslides and damaged transportation routes, telecommunication, water sewages, and caused fires due to the damage of gas pipelines. Five people were killed in the earthquake and 66 were injured by falling debris. 518 others were injured due to quake-caused panic, and two others died due to

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...

poisoning from fires caused by the quake. Moderate shaking was felt in

Tabriz Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...

, where six houses collapsed and over 400 were damaged.

Relief

3,091 tents, over 3,000 food parcels, 3,521 blankets, 4,595 bottles of water, 440 kitchen sets and 350 pieces of bread were sent to displaced victims of the earthquake.

References

External links

* {{Earthquakes in Iran Earthquakes in Iran 2019 earthquakes 2019 in Iran November 2019 events in Iran 2019 disasters in Asia History of East Azerbaijan Province 2019 disasters in Iran 2019 in Azerbaijan 2019 disasters in Azerbaijan