Gisk (Bab-Tangal) Earthquake of 19 December 1977, Mw 5.9
An earthquake of magnitude Mw=5.9, Ms= 5.8 and mb=5.5 occurred in Gisk region in Kerman province of Iran on Dec. 19, 1977, at 23:34:34 GMT. The epicenter of the earthquake was located at 39.93N and 56.48E with focal depth of about 31 km. The event devastated Gisk, Dar-Tangal and Sarbagh villages, claiming about 665 lives and injuring 260 people. At the time of the 1977 Gisk earthquake, There were no important engineered structures in the epicentral region. In Zarand, the historic structures such as the old Jame Mosque faced no damages.
The earthquake rupture with about 11.5-19.5 km length belonged to the Kuhbanan fault. There were some horizontal and vertical displacements with an average size of about 10 and 7 cm, respectively. It is notable that there were some foreshocks in the epicentral region, two of which occurred on September 18, 1977 and November 11, 1977, causing damages to Dar-tangal and Deh-e Zuiyeh villages, respectively. In addition, there were two strong aftershocks which intensified the earthquake damages.
