Strong Earthquake in Bam, Iran
Pledges of international aid began pouring in Friday for the southeastern Iranian city of Bam, where a severe earthquake killed more than 5,000 people and destroyed more than half of its mud-brick homes.
December 26, 2003
Friday December 26, 2003, 5:13 PM, CST.
From the U.S. Geological Survey,
National Earthquake Information Center, World Data Center for Seismology:
A strong earthquake occurred 180 km (115 miles) SE of Kerman, Iran at 6:56 PM MST, Dec 25, 2003 (Dec 26 at 5:26 AM local time in Iran). (Magnitude 6.5 SOUTHEASTERN IRAN). The magnitude and location may be revised when additional data and further analysis results are available.
Tectonic Summary:
This earthquake occurred as the result of stresses generated by the motion of the Arabian plate northward against the Eurasian plate at a rate of approximately 3 cm/yr (about one inch per year). Deformation of the Earth's crust in response to the plate motion takes place in a broad zone that spans the entire width of Iran and extends into Turkmenistan. Earthquakes occur as the result of both reverse faulting and strike-slip faulting within the zone of deformation.
Preliminary analysis of the pattern of seismic-wave radiation from the December 26 earthquake is consistent with the earthquake having been caused by right-lateral strike-slip motion on a north-south oriented fault. The earthquake occurred in a region within which major north-south, right-lateral, strike-slip faults had been previously mapped, and the epicenter lies near the previously mapped, north-south oriented, Bam fault. However, field investigations will be necessary to determine if the earthquake occurred on the Bam fault or on another, possibly not yet mapped, fault. The December 26 earthquake is 100 km south of the destructive earthquakes of June 11, 1981 (magnitude 6.6, approximately 3,000 deaths) and July 28, 1981 (magnitude 7.3, approximately 1,500 deaths). These earthquakes were caused by a combination of reverse-motion and strike-slip motion on the north-south oriented Gowk fault.
From Major Active Faults of Iran: http://www.iiees.ac.ir/seismology/ActiveFault.pdf
From IIEES: www.iiees.ac.ir
Location Map from USGS at: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_cvad_l.html
Historical Seismicity from USGS at: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_cvad_l.html
USGS Fast Moment Tensor Solution
03/12/26 01:56:56.09
SOUTHEASTERN IRAN
Epicenter: 29.010 58.266
MW 6.5
USGS MOMENT TENSOR SOLUTION
Depth 14 No. of sta: 26
Moment Tensor; Scale 10**18 Nm
Mrr= 1.11 Mtt=-1.89
Mff= 0.78 Mrt=-0.15
Mrf=-0.23 Mtf= 6.43
Principal axes:
T Val= 6.03 Plg= 3 Azm=129
N 1.10 87 313
P -7.12 0 219
Best Double Couple:Mo=6.6*10**18
NP1:Strike=264 Dip=88 Slip= 2
NP2: 174 88 178
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From CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/26/iran.quake/index.html
The 2,000-year-old medieval fortress of Bam, Iran, which reportedly was destroyed after an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 had its epicentre near Bam early Friday, is seen in this photo taken in September 2003. Initial reports say as many as 4,000 have been killed and 30,000 injured; 60 per cent of the homes in Bam - a city of 80,000 some 1000km (640 miles) southeast of Tehran -, is believed to have been leveled.
2000-Year-Old Medieval Fortress of Bam Was Damaged.
Pictures (before the earthquake) from: http://www.kermanmiras.org/places/arg_bam.htm
http://www.iranaccess.com/iraninfo/tourismattract/arg-ebam.htm
Medieval Fortress of Bam:
http://www.webshots.com/search/search.fcgi?words=Arg+Bam&new=1&source=gallery
From BBC, Iran earthquake kills thousands:
RECENT IRAN QUAKES:
June 2002: more than 200 killed in the western Qasvin and Hamedan regions
May 1997: More than 1,500 killed in eastern Iran
February 1997: about 1,000 killed in north-western Iran
June 1990: 35,000 died in worst recorded disaster in Iran, affecting the Caspian
regions of Gilan and Zanjan. About half a million people made homeless
June 1981: More than 1,000 killed in quake that destroyed town of Golbaf
From CNN, Thousands feared dead in Iran quake:
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Pledges of international aid began pouring in Friday for the southeastern Iranian city of Bam, where a severe earthquake killed more than 5,000 people and destroyed more than half of its mud-brick homes.
Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency put the death toll at between 5,000 and 6,000 people, and officials said they were worried that the number could climb higher. News reports quoted government officials as saying more than 20,000 people were killed.
More than 30,000 people were reported injured in the historic city, which is about 610 miles (975 kilometers) southeast of the capital, Tehran.
The quake was centered near Bam and flattened communities across the region.
The nation has begun three days of mourning.
As much as 80 percent of the city's buildings may have been destroyed, and electricity and telephone lines were down, according to the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, citing local media reports.
"The situation in Bam is worrying," Mohammad Ali Karimi, governor general of Kerman province, told the Iranian news agency. "The scale of the damage and deaths is widespread, and the number of victims is high."
Karimi told Iranian state television that more than 60 percent of Bam's residential neighborhoods were destroyed. The city has a population of 80,000.
Turkey, Russia, Spain, Britain and the United States are among the nations responding to Iran's call for help.
Turkey plans to send "every possible assistance," including "tents, food, medicine -- whatever is needed," said a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Ankara.
More than 120 Russian emergency and medical officials will head to the disaster scene, along with special equipment, a Russian emergency official said.
An aide to Spain's foreign minister said that nation is prepared to send humanitarian aid of various types.
The U.S. government said it is geared up to offer help, with the State Department drawing up a plan. "We are offering humanitarian assistance," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said aboard Air Force One.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi and offered the services of two specialized search-and-rescue teams. Kharrazi welcomed the offer, and arrangements are under way through the Department for International Development, Straw said.
Five Iranian Red Crescent Society emergency relief teams from neighboring provinces have been sent to Bam. The society has deployed two field hospitals and two helicopters to ferry the severely injured to hospitals as well as provide tents and medical supplies. Local volunteers also are assisting.
"The immediate priority is the search-and-rescue phase -- ensuring that survivors are located, given medical attention and transferred to the hospital," Mostafa Mohaghegh of the Iranian Red Crescent Society said in a statement.
The U.N. Disaster Management team in Tehran is sending two groups to the affected area "to collect, verify, and compile information on the extent and impact of the earthquake."
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is dispatching a 10-person team to assist in relief coordination. The office said it has made an initial $90,000 grant and is mobilizing 36 to 40 tons of relief items. These include blankets, kitchen sets, water distribution and purification units, high-energy biscuits and trauma kits.
Tehran University's Geophysics Institute said the earthquake measured a magnitude of 6.3, according to the news agency. It was followed by several aftershocks, including one measuring 5.3.
The U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center recorded a magnitude of 6.7, capable of doing severe damage, saying it struck at about 5:27 a.m. (8:57 p.m. ET Thursday).
Hours after the quake, Bam resembled a war zone, with smoke rising from collapsed buildings and many people kneeling in the rubble.
Bam was not built to withstand an earthquake, even though fault lines crisscross Iran.
"We've been told the airport is operating," Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said on state-run television.
Khatami said the wounded could be transferred to other places for treatment.
"We've been told that first 48 hours is very critical" in terms of coordinating the relief, he added. "People are actually in shock."
Bizhan Daftari, head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, told the Islamic Republic News Agency that several helicopters were on their way to the region.
Adding to the crisis, both hospitals in Bam were destroyed in the earthquake, forcing people to seek medical attention in the provincial capital of Kerman. Private vehicles were banned from roads to make room for emergency traffic.
The city's main tourist draw, the 2,000-year-old citadel Arg-e-Bam, was destroyed. It was on the register of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
"The historic quarter of the city has been completely destroyed and caused great human loss," Nour Bakhsh with the Red Crescent relief agency told the Iranian news agency.
In 1990, 35,000 people died when an earthquake hit northwest Iran.
CNN's Al Goodman and Ryan Chilcote and journalists Andrew Finkel and Shirzad Bozorgmehr
From the U.S. Geological Survey,
National Earthquake Information Center, World Data Center for Seismology:
A strong earthquake occurred 180 km (115 miles) SE of Kerman, Iran at 6:56 PM MST, Dec 25, 2003 (Dec 26 at 5:26 AM local time in Iran). (Magnitude 6.5 SOUTHEASTERN IRAN). The magnitude and location may be revised when additional data and further analysis results are available.
Tectonic Summary:
This earthquake occurred as the result of stresses generated by the motion of the Arabian plate northward against the Eurasian plate at a rate of approximately 3 cm/yr (about one inch per year). Deformation of the Earth's crust in response to the plate motion takes place in a broad zone that spans the entire width of Iran and extends into Turkmenistan. Earthquakes occur as the result of both reverse faulting and strike-slip faulting within the zone of deformation.
Preliminary analysis of the pattern of seismic-wave radiation from the December 26 earthquake is consistent with the earthquake having been caused by right-lateral strike-slip motion on a north-south oriented fault. The earthquake occurred in a region within which major north-south, right-lateral, strike-slip faults had been previously mapped, and the epicenter lies near the previously mapped, north-south oriented, Bam fault. However, field investigations will be necessary to determine if the earthquake occurred on the Bam fault or on another, possibly not yet mapped, fault. The December 26 earthquake is 100 km south of the destructive earthquakes of June 11, 1981 (magnitude 6.6, approximately 3,000 deaths) and July 28, 1981 (magnitude 7.3, approximately 1,500 deaths). These earthquakes were caused by a combination of reverse-motion and strike-slip motion on the north-south oriented Gowk fault.
From Major Active Faults of Iran: http://www.iiees.ac.ir/seismology/ActiveFault.pdf
From IIEES: www.iiees.ac.ir
Location Map from USGS at: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_cvad_l.html
Historical Seismicity from USGS at: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_cvad_l.html
USGS Fast Moment Tensor Solution
03/12/26 01:56:56.09
SOUTHEASTERN IRAN
Epicenter: 29.010 58.266
MW 6.5
USGS MOMENT TENSOR SOLUTION
Depth 14 No. of sta: 26
Moment Tensor; Scale 10**18 Nm
Mrr= 1.11 Mtt=-1.89
Mff= 0.78 Mrt=-0.15
Mrf=-0.23 Mtf= 6.43
Principal axes:
T Val= 6.03 Plg= 3 Azm=129
N 1.10 87 313
P -7.12 0 219
Best Double Couple:Mo=6.6*10**18
NP1:Strike=264 Dip=88 Slip= 2
NP2: 174 88 178
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From CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/26/iran.quake/index.html
The 2,000-year-old medieval fortress of Bam, Iran, which reportedly was destroyed after an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 had its epicentre near Bam early Friday, is seen in this photo taken in September 2003. Initial reports say as many as 4,000 have been killed and 30,000 injured; 60 per cent of the homes in Bam - a city of 80,000 some 1000km (640 miles) southeast of Tehran -, is believed to have been leveled.
2000-Year-Old Medieval Fortress of Bam Was Damaged.
Pictures (before the earthquake) from: http://www.kermanmiras.org/places/arg_bam.htm
http://www.iranaccess.com/iraninfo/tourismattract/arg-ebam.htm
Medieval Fortress of Bam:
http://www.webshots.com/search/search.fcgi?words=Arg+Bam&new=1&source=gallery
From BBC, Iran earthquake kills thousands:
RECENT IRAN QUAKES:
June 2002: more than 200 killed in the western Qasvin and Hamedan regions
May 1997: More than 1,500 killed in eastern Iran
February 1997: about 1,000 killed in north-western Iran
June 1990: 35,000 died in worst recorded disaster in Iran, affecting the Caspian
regions of Gilan and Zanjan. About half a million people made homeless
June 1981: More than 1,000 killed in quake that destroyed town of Golbaf
From CNN, Thousands feared dead in Iran quake:
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Pledges of international aid began pouring in Friday for the southeastern Iranian city of Bam, where a severe earthquake killed more than 5,000 people and destroyed more than half of its mud-brick homes.
Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency put the death toll at between 5,000 and 6,000 people, and officials said they were worried that the number could climb higher. News reports quoted government officials as saying more than 20,000 people were killed.
More than 30,000 people were reported injured in the historic city, which is about 610 miles (975 kilometers) southeast of the capital, Tehran.
The quake was centered near Bam and flattened communities across the region.
The nation has begun three days of mourning.
As much as 80 percent of the city's buildings may have been destroyed, and electricity and telephone lines were down, according to the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, citing local media reports.
"The situation in Bam is worrying," Mohammad Ali Karimi, governor general of Kerman province, told the Iranian news agency. "The scale of the damage and deaths is widespread, and the number of victims is high."
Karimi told Iranian state television that more than 60 percent of Bam's residential neighborhoods were destroyed. The city has a population of 80,000.
Turkey, Russia, Spain, Britain and the United States are among the nations responding to Iran's call for help.
Turkey plans to send "every possible assistance," including "tents, food, medicine -- whatever is needed," said a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Ankara.
More than 120 Russian emergency and medical officials will head to the disaster scene, along with special equipment, a Russian emergency official said.
An aide to Spain's foreign minister said that nation is prepared to send humanitarian aid of various types.
The U.S. government said it is geared up to offer help, with the State Department drawing up a plan. "We are offering humanitarian assistance," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said aboard Air Force One.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi and offered the services of two specialized search-and-rescue teams. Kharrazi welcomed the offer, and arrangements are under way through the Department for International Development, Straw said.
Five Iranian Red Crescent Society emergency relief teams from neighboring provinces have been sent to Bam. The society has deployed two field hospitals and two helicopters to ferry the severely injured to hospitals as well as provide tents and medical supplies. Local volunteers also are assisting.
"The immediate priority is the search-and-rescue phase -- ensuring that survivors are located, given medical attention and transferred to the hospital," Mostafa Mohaghegh of the Iranian Red Crescent Society said in a statement.
The U.N. Disaster Management team in Tehran is sending two groups to the affected area "to collect, verify, and compile information on the extent and impact of the earthquake."
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is dispatching a 10-person team to assist in relief coordination. The office said it has made an initial $90,000 grant and is mobilizing 36 to 40 tons of relief items. These include blankets, kitchen sets, water distribution and purification units, high-energy biscuits and trauma kits.
Tehran University's Geophysics Institute said the earthquake measured a magnitude of 6.3, according to the news agency. It was followed by several aftershocks, including one measuring 5.3.
The U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center recorded a magnitude of 6.7, capable of doing severe damage, saying it struck at about 5:27 a.m. (8:57 p.m. ET Thursday).
Hours after the quake, Bam resembled a war zone, with smoke rising from collapsed buildings and many people kneeling in the rubble.
Bam was not built to withstand an earthquake, even though fault lines crisscross Iran.
"We've been told the airport is operating," Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said on state-run television.
Khatami said the wounded could be transferred to other places for treatment.
"We've been told that first 48 hours is very critical" in terms of coordinating the relief, he added. "People are actually in shock."
Bizhan Daftari, head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, told the Islamic Republic News Agency that several helicopters were on their way to the region.
Adding to the crisis, both hospitals in Bam were destroyed in the earthquake, forcing people to seek medical attention in the provincial capital of Kerman. Private vehicles were banned from roads to make room for emergency traffic.
The city's main tourist draw, the 2,000-year-old citadel Arg-e-Bam, was destroyed. It was on the register of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
"The historic quarter of the city has been completely destroyed and caused great human loss," Nour Bakhsh with the Red Crescent relief agency told the Iranian news agency.
In 1990, 35,000 people died when an earthquake hit northwest Iran.
CNN's Al Goodman and Ryan Chilcote and journalists Andrew Finkel and Shirzad Bozorgmehr
