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Earthquake - Iran
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Catastrophe Report 4
July 8, 2003 - February 20, 2004
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Earthquake - Iran
| Territory: |
|
Iran |
| Region: |
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Bam and surrounding villages (Kerman
province, SE Iran) |
| Date: |
|
December 26th, 2003 |
| Event: |
|
Earthquake |
| Impact: |
|
As of February 18th, official figures put the
death toll at 43,200, with 30,000 injured and 75,600 left homeless.
About 85 percent of buildings and infrastructure are reported
to have been destroyed. The cost of reconstruction is presently
estimated at one billion US$. |
| Summary: |
|
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck close to the
city of Bam in Iran’s south east province of Kerman, at
05.27 local time. The quake was shallow, at just 10km, and surface
rupturing appears to show that it occurred on the Bam Fault,
which runs less than a kilometre from the city. Ground shaking
reached IX on the 12-point Modified Mercalli Scale, and the
highest ground acceleration was 0.98 g. This is an area of high
seismic hazard as a result of stress accumulation arising from
the northward movement of the Arabian Plate against the much
larger Eurasian Plate, at a rate of about 3cm/y. The quake occurred
100km south of an area where two earthquakes in 1981 took 4,500
lives. Severe damage and major loss of life arose as a consequence
of the poor construction materials (mud bricks) used in most
buildings together with an absence of anti-seismic building
codes and/or their enforcement. Should a large earthquake strike
the capital Teheran, it is estimated that around half a million
buildings will be destroyed and over 380,000 killed. |
| Data sources: |
|
USGS Earthquake Hazards Program
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2003/eq_031226/
International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology
http://www.iiees.ac.ir/English/eng_index.html |
| Additional sources:
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Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
http://www.eeri.org/lfe/iran_bam.html
ReliefWeb
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/vLND
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