Dahuiyeh Zarand Earthquake of 22 February 2005, Ms 6.5
The Dahuiyeh earthquake 22/02/2005, has shocked a seismically active area in SW of Iran in Kerman Province. The region is known by the previous earthquakes occurred in this region; specially the earthquake of 19 December 1977, Mw5.9 (Gisk-Bantangal, North of Zarand) which caused more than 500 life losses and was originated from the reactivation of the Kuhbanan fault (a right-lateral strike slip fault with a length of about 100km). The recent earthquake caused a life loss of more than 600 persons and more than 2000 injured people. Two villages of Dahuiyeh and Hutkan were demolished totally, where the most of the life losses were observed. The damages in the village of Hutkan were corresponded to the location of the village houses in a slop of about 45 degree. On the other hand, the damages were amplified in the epicentral region due to a heavy rain and snow fall, which caused heavier roofs, and more suitable conditions for collapse. The maximum intensity of XIII-IX (EMS98) could be assigned to the macroseismic region. The damages due to this earthquake are mostly observed in Dahuiyeh and Hutkan. Most of the life losses are related to Hutkan, where the rural houses were settled in about 45 degree slope. The some of the brick houses, however, seems to survive because of their more resistant and according to their location in the flat part of the village. The macroseismic epicenter was located in a region around Dahuiyeh and the region between Dahuiyeh and Hutkan.
Sefidabeh Earthquake of 23 February 1994, mb 6.6
In February 1994 a sequence of four earthquakes with magnitudes (Ms) 5.5- 6.1 occurred in the space of a week in a remote area of eastern Iran. The first event occurred on 23th February 1994 with magnitude of mb=6.6. The dominant characteristic of the surface ruptures is bedding-plane slip, producing extensional features on the ridge. From the seismological and geomorphologic evidences, it appears that these ruptures formed in response to the growth of an anticline above a blind thrust. Berberian et al. (2000) observed that the ruptures were all within the vertically dipping and isoclinally folded Upper Cretaceous Paleocene flysch and volcaniclastic rocks, and nearly all involved slip on bedding planes. The ruptures and scarps formed three types of surface feature: 1) Discontinuous mini-grabens formed by doubl scarps and up to 1.7m deep occurred along the Sefidabeh ridge crest, with slip occurring on sub vertical bedding planes mostly in flysch. These grabens are well developed 1.2km south of the gap in the ridge occupied by the old lake deposits adjacent to Sefidabeh. Striations on the bedding planes showed subvertical dip slip, with no strike-slip component. The larger displacement was usually on the western wall of the minigrabens. Exposures in gullies show that the 1994 movement increased previous offsets of at least 5.0 m on the same bedding planes, and that the saddle-like morphology of the ridge crest is the result of previous graben-forming movements. 2) Step-like single scarps were also common on the Sefidabeh ridge, usually on the NE side and upthrown to the SW, again on subvertical bedding planes. 3) Other scarps on the ridge appeared to have formed by settlement of soft tuff. Beds between competent limestone layers, perhaps in response to the collapse of underground channels or caverns. Berberian et al. (2000) noted that in any case, the early Tertiary deformation that caused tight isoclinals folding in the soft shale and flysch formations produced more discontinuous faulting within the harder limestones and tuffs, and there is no certainty that the vertical bedding-plane shear seen at the surface extends to any great depth (Jafari and Moosavi, 2008).
Rey-Taleghan Earthquake of 23 February 958, Ms 7.7
On 23th February 958, there was a catastrophic earthquake in north-central Persia. It destroyed all the villages in the districts of Ray and Taliqan, both in the plain and the mountains, and much of the city of Ray was totally ruined, heavy causalities being reported from both districts. In Taliqan there were only 30 survivors and in the districts of Ray 150 villages were destroyed, one village in the mountains being overwhelmed by landslides. A mountain near Ray was fissured and water poured out of the ground. In the mountains of Ruyan to the north of Ray, large-scale landslides blocked the course of a river whose waters receded to form a lake. Damage extended northwest into Dailman and south to Qum and Kashan. The shock was possibly felt in Isfahan and as far as Baghdad. Damaging aftershocks continued for forty days, and were felt throughout north-central Persia. It is possible that the earthquake was connected with an abnormal drop in the level of the Caspian Sea which, however, seems to have occurred before the event.
The most important worldwide earthquakes on this day
| Date | Time | Y | X | Depth | Mw | Region | Refrence |
| 1929/2/22 | 20:41:51 | 10.684 | -41.984 | 10 | 7.1 | northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge | USGS |
| 1934/2/22 | 8:7:0 | 38.23 | 45.04 | 92 | 6.16 | Iran | AMB |
| 1943/2/22 | 9:20:49 | 17.457 | -101.451 | 20 | 7.4 | offshore Guerrero, Mexico | USGS |
| 2005/2/22 | 2:25:22 | 30.72 | 56.78 | 7 | 6.5 | Dahuiyeh, Zarand, Kerman, SE Iran | EHB Bulletin |
| 958/2/23 | – | 36.00 | 51.10 | – | 7.7 | Rey | Amb |
| 1949/2/23 | 16:08:11 | 41.865 | 84.191 | 10 | 7.3 | southern Xinjiang, China | USGS |
| 1969/2/23 | 0:36:58 | -3.201 | 118.904 | 15 | 7 | Sulawesi, Indonesia | USGS |
| 1970/2/23 | – | 27.771 | 54.54 | 25 | 5.8 | southern Iran | USGS |
| 1980/2/23 | 5:51:03 | 43.53 | 146.753 | 44 | 7 | Kuril Islands | USGS |
| 1994/2/23 | 8:2:4 | 30.853 | 60.596 | 6 | 6.1 | Sefidabeh- E Iran | NEIC |