TEHRAN – A total of 425 earthquakes have been recorded across the country over the past calendar month that ended on February 19, according to the seismological networks of the Institute of Geophysics of the University of Tehran.

Of the total quakes, 8 had a magnitude of more than 4 on the Richter scale, the largest of which occurred on January 22 with a magnitude of 4.5, in the southeastern Kerman province.

Statistically, 378 earthquakes with magnitudes smaller than 3; 39 earthquakes with magnitudes between 3 and 4, and 8 earthquakes with magnitudes between 4 and 5 have occurred in the country.

Among the provinces of the country, Isfahan and Ilam with 54, Khorasan Razavi with 48, and South Khorasan with 29 earthquakes, respectively, recorded the highest number of earthquakes in the country.

A total of 7,000 earthquakes have been recorded across the country over the past calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2023.

Of the total quakes, 185 were more than 4 on the Richter scale, the largest of which occurred on June 1, 2022, with a magnitude of 6.1 in the southern province of Hormozgan.

Statistically, at least two earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 5 have occurred monthly in the country.

The northwestern province of West Azarbaijan, the northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi, and the southeastern province of Kerman, registered the most earthquakes with 838, 813, and 740 earthquakes respectively.

The northcentral provinces of Qazvin, Zanjan, and Alborz recorded the least earthquakes with 21, 9, and 2 earthquakes respectively.

The southern province of Hormozgan, the southeastern province of Kerman, and the northwestern province of West Azarbaijan registered respectively the highest number of earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 4 on the Richter scale.

The Iranian plateau is located in a very seismically active region of the world and is known not only for its major catastrophic earthquakes but also for the disasters relating to natural hazards, especially earthquakes.

About 2 percent of the earthquakes in the world occur 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 professor of engineering seismology.

Iran has entered a decade of earthquakes since the [Iranian calendar] year 1396 (March 2017- March 2018), as the Iranian plateau is shrinking by 30 millimeters per year, 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 highest seismic activity in the region and its formation is related to the continuation of the convergent movement between the Arabian plate and the central continental plate of Iran.

Tehran is also one of the most hazardous metropolises in the world in terms of the risk of different natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, subsidence, drought, landslides, fire following an earthquake, etc.

On the other hand, Tehran has a nighttime population of over 8,300,000 with a mixture of old non-resistant structures as well as modern high-rise buildings that affect the vulnerability of this city.

MG