Iran Earthquake Update

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Strong extremely shallow earthquake in Iran kills at least 8 people, 23 injured and a lot of damage

Last update: December 6, 2012 at 12:47 pm by By

Earthquake overview : A seemingly moderate earthquake became a deadly one because of the specific earthquake mechanisms in Iran and because of the poor building quality.

Update Dec. 6, 12:34 UTC :

A full damage assessment has come out from Iran with the following details:-

20 villages have been damaged 60%.  (The method for Iran damage)

4 bodies have been delivered to the coroner, however, they are still waiting on 5 members of a 6 member family who presumably died when their house collapsed.

73 relief staff including 10 SAR personnel have been carrying out operations.

  • Outpatient treatment of victims: 8 people
  • The number of victims transported to the hospital: 12 people
  • Destruction of the 20 villages: 40 to 100 percent
  • The number of people resettled/evacuated to shelter: 1000 people

The following relief has been

  • Tent: 1000
  • Blankets: 600
  • Carpets: 900
  • Electric Lights: 600
  • Food and mineral water: 10000 cans.

2000 animals (livestock) are in the cold currently and there is a fear of them dying.

Update Dec. 6, 04:24 UTC : 8 people have been killed, and 1 person is missing as a result of this earthquake. 23 people have been injured with many others treated for superficial wounds.

زهان (Zohan) has seen the most damage and destruction with many houses destroyed. 5 people were killed and 1 is missing in this location. 707 people live in Zohan as of the year 2006, so this will be a great shock for the small town with 1% death rate.

15 villages in addition have been damaged/destroyed. Hosseinabad is one of those affected.

16 aftershocks between M3 and M4 have been keeping people out of their houses. It is extremely cold in South Khorasan at the moment. Around 5 degrees C overnight to 14 during the day, will mean that shelter is required.

South Khorasan is a reasonably poor region, and by the number of articles in the Iranian press about aid, this usually means that there is major damage in the villages affected.

Update Dec. 6, 21:49 UTC : For further news we will have to wait until the early morning hours in Iran. We will keep you updated.

Update 21:49 UTC : 15 emergency teams, 10 ambulances and a lot of heavy excavating equipment has been send to the epicenter area.  The weather is quit fair at the moment but temperatures go down to 3°C, thats freezing cold if you have to spend the night in open air.

Iranian SAR and relieve teams are very well organised as the country has a lot of dangerous even deadly earthquakes like this one.

Update 21:44 UTC : The epicenter of the quake was 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the town of Zohan, at a depth of nine kilometers, the Iranian Seismological Center said on its website. The quake caused damage to rural buildings and cut power lines and telephone communication. Iran has mostly adobe and brick stone houses who have a little or no resistance against earthquakes.

Update 21:03 UTC : The number of killed people remains at 5 but the number of injured has risen to at least 20.

Update 20:03 UTC : The Iranian Red Crescent is very active in trying to help the population as well as the SAR teams from the Iranian authorities.  It is currently dark in the Iran which makes relieve efforts and SAR searches extremely difficult. We will keep you updated when more news comes in.

Important update 19:45 UTC : Mehrnews Iran is reporting 4 villages very heavily damaged and  at least 5 people killed and 12 injured. A terrible result once more.

Update 17:45 UTC : Based on our experience we estimate that it will take many hours before we will get reports from the earthquake epicenter area.  The s it is dark in Iran . We are however convinced that at least minor damage may occur in an area approx. 10 to 20 km around the epicenter.

Update 17:40 UTC :  Our @Quake_tracker4 was far ahead of most other earthquake twitter accounts. Follow us and be informed as first about important earthquakes

Update 17:29 UTC : We only see a limited number of Iranian people online at the moment. The Magnitude has been lowered in the meantime to M5.6 but at an extremely shallow (and dangerous) depth of only 5.6 km.

Preliminary data are telling us a Magnitude of M6.0, but the final value can be far weaker or even higher.
Even at a Magnitude of 5.5, Iran may generate damage.

Preliminary epicenter

Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 5.6
UTC Time : 2012-12-05 17:08:12 UTC
Local time at epicenter :  2012-12-05 20:38:12 UTC+03:30 at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 5.6 km
Geo-location(s) :
43km (27mi) SE of Qayen, Iran
75km (47mi) NNE of Birjand, Iran
125km (78mi) SE of Gonabad, Iran
178km (111mi) SW of Taybad, Iran

from:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/12/06/strong-extremely-shallow-earthquake-in-iran-kills-at-least-6-people-20-injured-and-a-lot-of-damage/