Massive Earthquake in Iran

[tommy]

My goodness... This is terrible.

20,000 feared dead in Iran quake
Friday, December 26, 2003 Posted: 9:20 AM EST (1420 GMT)

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran has appealed for international aid as the death toll from a devastating earthquake climbed to 4,000 and officials warned that thousands more are likely to be found dead.

At least 30,000 people have been injured in the quake in southeastern Iran, local officials said.

The Iranian government said as many as 20,000 people may have died in the quake, which was centered near the ancient city of Bam about 610 miles (975 km) southeast of the capital, Tehran.

The quake struck at 5:27 a.m. Friday (8:57 p.m. ET Thursday) as people were sleeping.

The government requested international assistance, asking for sniffer dogs to help find the thousands feared trapped in the ruins.

"The situation in Bam is worrying. The scale of the damage and deaths is widespread and the number of victims is high," Mohammad Ali Karimi, the governor general of Kerman province, told Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

He said 60 percent of the city's residential areas have been destroyed. Bam has a population of about 80,000 people.

Tehran University's Geophysics Institute said the earthquake measured a magnitude of 6.3, according to IRNA. It was followed by several aftershocks, including one measuring 5.3.

For its part, the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center measured the magnitude of the quake at 6.7

"The historic quarter of the city has been completely destroyed and caused great human loss," Nour Bakhsh with Iran's Red Crescent relief agency told IRNA.

A legislator for Kerman province, Hasan Khoshrou, told The Associated Press people on the scene said the devastation was "beyond imagination."

Adding to the crisis, both of the hospitals in Bam were destroyed in the earthquake, forcing people to seek medical attention in the provincial capital of Kerman. Private vehicles have been banned from the roads to make room for emergency traffic.

"We have no exact information about the scale of the damage since all telephone communications with the cities of Bam, Jiroft and Kohnouj had been cut off," Karimi said.

Mostafa Mohaghegh, another Red Crescent official, told CNN that rescuers were busy providing food, shelter and medicine to those injured in the quake.

"The state of the damages is very wide in the city so we are yet to identify the total number of those who have died and also the injured."

In explaining the severity of the damage to the city, journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr in Tehran said Bam is an ancient city not designed to withstand a major earthquake. He said army search and rescue teams have been mobilized to the area.

Meanwhile, Russia and Germany have so far offered to help Iran help in the rescue operations.

Russian Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Marina Ryklina said that two Il-76 transport aircraft with rescue workers and equipment were to leave for Iran later Friday, AP reported.

Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer sent a telegram to his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharrazi offering support.

"Germany is ready to do everything in its powers to contribute to recovering and rescuing people in the earthquake region,'' Fischer wrote.

German President Johannes Rau sent a letter of condolence to Iran's President Mohammad Khatami, and also offered German assistance, Reuters reported.

"I assure you that Germany is ready to support your nation in overcoming the material damages,'' Rau wrote.

[Shell]

Holy cow, that is horrible!! :sad:

I came across this article yesterday and thought it was interesting..

Report: Mountains grew a foot in Calif. quake

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) --California's largest earthquake in four years struck on Monday, causing planet Earth to ring "like a bell" and mountains to grow a foot (30 cm) taller, geologists said.

The magnitude 6.5 quake hit near the coastal city of San Simeon almost exactly half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles, setting high-rise buildings swaying in both cities.

Earthquakes relieve pressure between clashing continental plates. The plates float on the earth's mantle, which has a putty like consistency and moves as the earth's core heats it.

On Monday one piece of crust shoved beneath another about 4.75 miles (7.6 km) beneath the surface of the earth and at the intersection of the Pacific and North American plates, U.S. Geological Survey seismologists said

That sent tremors along America's west coast and beyond.

"For an earthquake this size, every single sand grain on the planet dances to the music of those seismic waves," Geological Survey geologist Ross Stein said Monday at a news conference.

"You may not be able to feel them, but the entire planet is rung like a bell."

The Monday earthquake struck on what is believed to be the San Simeon thrust fault. Pressure in a thrust fault is relieved when one piece of earth pushes up on top of another, compared with lateral faults -- like the famous San Andreas -- in which two piece of crust slide next to one another.

Thrust faults produce mountains, and the San Simeon quake probably improved the view from the nearby hills, Stein said because, "mountains have probably been pushed up about a foot or so by this earthquake."

The tremor was the biggest in California since 1999, when the Hector Mine quake crashed through the desert east of Los Angeles, and it packed about half the power of the Northridge earthquake which shook Los Angeles a decade ago.

Earthquake power is measured on a scale which increases exponentially, so at 6.7 the Northridge quake was about twice as powerful as the 6.5-magnitude San Simeon quake.

The Northridge quake was also one of the costliest disasters in U.S. history, causing over $40 billion of damage since it shook a heavily populated area.

Geologists expect smaller aftershocks of magnitude 5 to continue for days, weeks and longer, and there is a 5 percent to 10 percent chance that Monday's quake was a precursor to a bigger one.

The plates have created a patchwork of faults, said Susan Hough, a seismologist at the United States Geological Survey in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena.

"The crust is getting mangled over a zone," she said. "As the plates move they are sort of grinding California into ribbons," she said.

Eventually the movement will carve Mexico's Baja California, the peninsula that juts south below San Diego, California, off from the rest of Mexico.

But California is not going anywhere quickly.

From a geological perspective, the area has looked about the same for 5 million years, Hough told Reuters.

"We are not falling into the ocean," she said.

[puckin_A]

hey I am still in Calif and I felt that earthquake. It's wierd....I was born
and raised here (for the most part) and have been through a bazillion
earthquakes.....but this time I was sitting at this computer engaged in
a conversation with my son ......my chair started shaking and the blinds
started shaking and I felt it, saw it.........but I didn't think about what it was
until someone called to ask if we felt it. My son didn't even notice. sheesh.
I have been away too long. I told my son he should be happy
that I was so engrossed in our conversation! :)

[puckin_A]

but as far as the IRan earthquake. :( that is awful!!

[tommy]

They say the death toll in the Iran earthquake could exceed 40,000 now. :sad:

[VandyCane]

Amazing how some people have a will to survive:

97-Year-Old Iranian Quake Victim Rescued
http://start.earthlink.net/newsarticle?cat=7&aid=D7VRL2OG0_story

I loved this quote:Rescuers said she asked for a cup of tea soon after her rescue - and then complained it was too hot to drink.

That's one feisty lady. :D

[tommy]

Amazing! That's a wonderful story.