How to measure eathquakes

On June 21st, 1990 a 7.7 earthquake rolled through northwestern Iran. The worst earthquake to strike Iran in 12 years shook cities at 12:30 A.M. The earthquake killed an estimated 50,000 people, injuring 200,000, and leaving 500,000 homeless. Tehran lies on a strike-slip fault. The Eurasian plate is pushing into the Arabian plate...causing a strike-slip fault. This eventually leads to many cracks in the Eurasian plate.


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Fault Lines

Iran lies in an earthquake belt extending from Turkey through the Caucasus Mountains and farther east into the Himalayas. The belt is stradeling the area where the Arabian tectonic plate is pushing gradually northeastward, at a rate of five inches per year. As the plates move in this direction, it continually collides with the larger Eurasian plate and energy is transferred from the collision to fault lines running through it. These fault lines run through Northwes...