Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 7
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
A tremor measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale jolted Saland in Iran's southwestern province of Khuzestan, this morning, Iranian Mehr News agency reported on Feb. 7.
According to the report by the seismography center affiliated with Tehran University Geophysics Institute, the tremor occurred at 08:13 hour local time and its epicenter was at 32.63 degrees latitude and 48.82 degrees longitude and at a depth of 7 kilometers.
Six more earthquakes shook the region after the first tremor. The latest tremor jolted Saland at 10:02 local time, the report said. There is no immediate report on possible casualties or damage.
Iran sits astride several major faults in the earth's crust and is prone to frequent earthquakes, many of which have been devastating.
The worst earthquake in recent times hit Bam in southeastern Kerman province in December 2003, killing 31,000 people, about a quarter of its population, and destroyed the city's ancient mud-built citadel.
The deadliest quake in the country was in June 1990 and measured 7.7 on the Richter scale.
About 37,000 people were killed and more than 100,000 injured in the northwestern provinces of Gilan and Zanjan. It devastated around 27 towns and 1,870 villages.