TEHRAN – Iran will participate in an international workshop on global seismology and tectonics which will be held online from September 14-25.

Mehdi Zare, professor of engineering seismology at the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES) and an associate member of the academy of sciences of Iran will represent the country which will be organized by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of the North East Institute of Science and Technology-Jorhat, Assam, India.

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% of the earthquakes of 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 Zare.

Most recently, an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale shook the capital city of Tehran on May 8, killing two and injuring 33. The causative fault for the earthquake was Mosha fault, 5km north of the city of Damavand.

Tehran is 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. 

MG