Baku, Azerbaijan, March 2
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
An earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale jolted the city of Avaj in Iran's Qazvin province.
The tremor occurred at 9:38 local time (GMT +4:30 hours), according to a report from the seismography center affiliated with Tehran University Geophysics Institute.
The earthquake's epicenter was at 35.75 degrees latitude and 48.93 degrees longitude at a depth of 10 kilometers underground, Iran's State IRINN TV reported March 2.
There is no immediate report on possible casualties or damage.
Avaj was near the epicenter of the 2002 Bouin-Zahra earthquake and thus was severely affected by it, with roughly half the town being razed.
Iran sits astride several major faults in the earth's crust and is prone to frequent earthquakes, many of which have been devastating.
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 north-western provinces of Gilan and Zanjan. Nearly 27 towns and 1,870 villages were devastated.
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