TEHRAN An overall of 105 earthquakes were taped across the nation in the 4th week of Bahman, the 11th Iranian calendar month, which falls from February 8 to 14, according to the seismological networks of the Institute of Geophysics of the University of Tehran.Statistically, 92 earthquakes with magnitudes smaller sized than 3; 12 earthquakes with magnitudes in between 3 and 4; and one earthquake with magnitude between 4 and 5 have actually taken place in the country, IRNA reported.Of the overall quakes, 1 had a magnitude of 4 on the Richter scale which happened on February 10 with the epicenter in Kangavar, western Kermanshah province.Among the provinces of the country, Khorasan Razavi with 17 experienced the highest number of earthquakes, followed by Fars and Bushehr, each with 10, and Kermanshah with 9 earthquakes.During the same period, no earthquakes were taped in East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Ardabil, Alborz, and Kohgiluyeh-Boyerahmad, Markazi, Qom, Gilan, Qazvin, and Zanjan provinces.An overall of 6,949 earthquakes were tape-recorded throughout the nation over the past fiscal year (March 2023 March 2024) according to the Seismological networks of the Institute of Geophysics of the University of Tehran.Most of the earthquakes happened respectively in the north-eastern Khorasan Razavi, south-eastern Kerman, north-western West Azarbaijan, and eastern South Khorasan provinces, ISNA reported.Statistically, 2,268 earthquakes were less than 2 on the Richter scale; 3,685 were between 2 and 3; 796 were in between 3 and 4; 181 were between 4 and 5; 22 were in between 5 and 6; and 5 were in between 6 and 7.
The Iranian plateau is located in an extremely seismically active area of the world and is known not just for its significant disastrous earthquakes however also for the catastrophes connecting to natural threats, particularly earthquakes.About 2 percent of the earthquakes worldwide happen in Iran but more than 6% of the victims of the world earthquakes during the 20th century are reported from Iranian earthquakes.This shows the high level of vulnerability in Iran, according to Mehdi Zare, a teacher of engineering seismologyIran has gone into a years of earthquakes considering that the [Iranian calendar] year 1396 (March 2017-March 2018), as the Iranian plateau is shrinking by 30 millimetres annually, Mehdi Zare, professor of engineering seismology at the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), has said.The Strait of Hormuz region in the south of Iran has the greatest seismic activity in the region and its development is associated with the extension of the convergent motion between the Arabian plate and the central continental plate of Iran.Tehran is also one of the most harmful metropolises in the world in terms of the danger of different natural catastrophes, such as earthquakes, floods, subsidence, dry spell, landslides, fire following an earthquake, etc.On the other hand, Tehran has a night-time population of over 8,300,000 with a mix of old non-resistant structures in addition to contemporary skyscrapers that affect the vulnerability of this city.MT/ MG