TEHRAN – Over the past calendar month Dey (December 22, 2021-January 20, 2022), a total of 627 earthquakes have taken place across the country, according to the Seismological networks of the Institute of Geophysics of the University of Tehran.

Fourteen earthquakes of more than 4 on the Richter scale have been recorded in the country by the National Seismological Center, the largest of which occurred on January 15, with a magnitude of 5.1 near Sirach in southeastern Kerman province.

Statistically, 541 earthquakes with magnitudes smaller than 3, and 72 earthquakes with magnitudes between 3 to 4 have occurred.

Among the provinces of the country, Khorasan Razavi with 86 earthquakes, Kerman with 73 earthquakes, and Isfahan with 58 earthquakes recorded the highest number of earthquakes in the country.

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 of the world occur in Iran but more than 6 percent 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.

MG