Thread: Major earthquake strikes south-east Iran

Iran has been struck by its most powerful earthquake for nearly 40 years, with tremors felt across Pakistan, India and the Middle East.

The epicentre of the 7.8 magnitude quake was near the south-east city of Khash, close to the Pakistani border, the US Geological Survey said.

Offices were evacuated in Abu Dhabi and buildings swayed in Delhi, India.

Iranian state media said no deaths had been confirmed, despite an earlier TV report that at least 40 had died.

Area where quake struck

• South-east Iranian province of Sistan Baluchistan, near border with Pakistan
• Sparsely populated area made up of mountains and desert
• Many houses built of mud bricks
• Epicentre close to cities of Khash (pop 180,000) and Saravan (pop 250,000)

At least five people died in Pakistan near the border with Iran, hospital and local government officials said.

The earthquake struck in the province of Sistan Baluchistan at about 15:14 local time (10:44 GMT), close to the cities of Khash, with a population of nearly 180,000, and Saravan, with 250,000.

Iran's Fars news agency was reporting that Saravan had suffered no serious damage.

All communications to the region have been cut. The Iranian Red Crescent said it was sending 20 search-and-rescue teams with three helicopters to the area.





Workers in Karachi were evacuated from their offices


The earthquake has been felt across the region. A BBC correspondent in Abu Dhabi said she was evacuated from her office.

Michael Stephens, a researcher at RUSI Qatar, told the BBC from his office in Doha: "I definitely felt the walls shaking. It lasted for about 25 seconds."

Mohammad Wazir, a correspondent for BBC Persian in Pakistan, says the quake was felt in the cities of Karachi and Quetta.

It comes after a 6.3-magnitude quake in south-west Iran killed at least 37 people and wounded 850 on 10 April.

Iran's most deadly recent earthquake was a 6.6-magnitude quake that destroyed much of the south-eastern city of Bam and killed some 26,000 people in 2003.

bbc news

Last week's one obviously missed the target.....

I had friends in the middle east that felt it, quite a long temor.

and Iran was just saying how God punished the USA for that big storm they had a few months ago.....

I read about this after someone reported it on Facebook.

Seems it was very deep which accounts for the low injury/fatality level.

Not much chance of a tsunami either.

The problem can be seen in this little map below



The indian tectonic plate has been, geologically speaking, flying at an unprecedented rate smashing into eurasia and creating the Himalayas in no time at all. The plats still moving but for the last 500 years to so its been jammed and the indian plate has been buckling storing up a huge amount of energy. So these large earth quakes we have been seeing in Pakistan and iran are likly to be only the beginning... there's a lot more to to come in an arc from iran to burma. not a confronting thought for those living at the ground zero's.

if you look at a terrane map of that prt of the world, you can literally see how the earth is tearing and twisting itsself all up. if you ever fly over iran its worth having a window seat to just watch this as you fly over.