TEHRAN – The 24th earthquake drill, aiming at preparing for unexpected natural disasters and practicing personal protective actions, was performed at schools across the country on Tuesday.

The earthquake drill was held with the aim of increasing awareness of students and the community about earthquakes, preparing them for safety and retrofitting reactions, arousing students’ curiosity about natural phenomena, and ultimately reducing casualties and damages caused by quakes, Mehr reported.

A total of 484 earthquakes have been recorded across the country over the past calendar month (October 23-November 21).This exercise was organized by the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, and the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

If the seismic action is a prolonged shaking and rolling event, it is prudent to immediately take protective measures, so the event is held annually for the past 23 years to reduce the damages that happen once the earthquake strikes.

A total of 484 earthquakes have been recorded across the country over the past calendar month (October 23-November 21), according to the Seismological networks of the Institute of Geophysics of the University of Tehran.

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.

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, landslide, fire following an earthquake, etc.

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