Massive 7.8 EQ hits Iran, South-West PAKISTAN (Pak - Iran Border)

A huge 7.8 EQ has just struck Iran, south-west of Pakistan. (Some place near Zehedan.)
Will Update as I get more info.

This could be a devastating EQ, if near populated area.

NDTV

IBN Live

Dawn

Sky News

Pakistan is filled with mountains and they are great protection, doubt anything except for flooding would happen.

it's not on my earthquake map yet...

earthquake.usgs.gov...

have you got a link please?

nm, it took it's sweet time to show up, it's there now though... hope it's ok out there

click abc news to go their twitter

They are saying 8 and Iran, could be felt in India, so its huge, looks like Iran Pakistan border though...

i felt it 10 min ago although im so far away from the location , im int the UAE sharjah

i was sitting on my chair in my bed room watching TV and felt my chair shaking , i thought that one of my children was shaking my chair but when i looked back i didnt fine anybody i saw that the chandeliers shaking then i knew its an earthquake .

this is my first ever experience

I am in Abu Dhabi currently and felt the tremors from this for 15-20 seconds. Hotel room was shaking ahell of a lot.
Decided to do a google search to if it was in the news...here is a link:
www.emirates247.com...

It rates as "violent shaking" according to the USGS. No pager data yet. I hope it is an uninhabited area.

Here is the Pager link. It looks like 16,000 people were hit with severe shaking--this could be really bad..

It is felt in New Dehli thats 1800 miles away

Khash, Iran
Khash is a city in and the capital of Khash County, in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 56,683, in 10,176 families. Wikipedia

Epicenter is 86km (53mi) ESE of Khash, Iran... nearest town

EDIT: original reports had the quake shallower but now it's being reported at 82 km deep. This is better than having it really shallow.

USGS Data summary:

Event Time

2013-04-16 10:44:20 UTC
2013-04-16 15:14:20 UTC+04:30 at epicenter
2013-04-16 12:44:20 UTC+02:00 system time

Location

28.107°N 62.053°E depth=82.0km (51.0mi)
Nearby Cities

83km (52mi) E of Khash, Iran
168km (104mi) NE of Iranshahr, Iran
192km (119mi) SE of Zahedan, Iran
232km (144mi) SSW of Rudbar, Afghanistan
606km (377mi) NE of Muscat, Oman

A magnitude 7.8 will still cause an awful lot of surface shaking even at that depth and with many of the buildings in the region being URM (unreinforced masonry) it's likely there will be building collapses and so we can expect casualties.

This was MASSIVE ... felt across Middle East ...Gosh, even people in New Delhi felt it shake for about 18-20 seconds.

Just spoke with relatives in Delhi, one was in a car, waiting at traffic signal...when the car started shaking, and continued to shake for about 20 seconds...No first reports of damages in Delhi.

People had to evacuate buildings in Dubai...! No damages reported.



This was a shallow EQ, and felt over a huge area.
Hope N-Reactors in Iran and Pakistan are safe!

Gosh...Update from RT states hundreds are feared dead! This is turning worse! RT

I was on the phone to my sister visiting UAE when her entire building started shaking. Went straight on to USGS and saw a breaking 7.8.

Heart goes out to all those who have been affected by this quake so soon after a 6.3.

They were saying that this was felt from a far distance and it was 120!!kms deep. And many casualties. I'm thinking of Iran nuclear reactor.

I think it's soon time for the Middle east to stop building those tall buildings, They may be constructed for EQs but eventually they'll fall too.

Well no wonder it happened .....look at this map that area is at 16 mhz.

www.ips.gov.au...

Prayers to all of you in the area.

I hope this isn't as devastating as it sounds.

That said - I was horrified to see all those people standing under those buildings with all that glass. Get AWAY from the buildings people!

peace

God, that was felt over such a huge, huge area I hope since the area is mountainous (it least looks so) that it provided a good buffer for the energy & it isn't as devastating as we're expecting.

reply to post by FermiFlux

Yes, that recent magnitude 6.3 in the region was bad enough, but to put this in perspective, a magnitude 7.8 is about 32 times bigger than a 6.3 in terms of shaking, and around 180 times stronger in terms of energy released.***

In other words, it takes nearly 180 magnitude 6.3 quakes to release the same amount of energy (pent-up strain) as a single magnitude 7.8.

So it's not surprising it was felt over such a huge area.

(*** Exact figures are 31.622 times bigger and 177.827 times stronger. Refer to the USGS "How much bigger?" quake comparison calculator.)

hundreds expected dead apparently...

www.stuff.co.nz...

"Iranian officials say hundreds are expected to be dead after a major 7.8 magnitude earthquake has struck the country near the border with Pakistan."

This is a rare earthquake, largest one in 40 years in Iran, wow!!!

RT ‏@RT_com 1m
#Iran magnitude 7.8 quake 'biggest in the country in 40 years' - Iranian official; LIVE UPDATES on.rt.com...

reply to post by Nyiah

Unfortunately mountainous regions can get affected just as badly and sometimes worse due to landslides. In human terms it just depends on how many settlements are within the region.

But besides destroying hillside homes, landslides can also block the roadways, which in such regions are often narrow and winding and in poor repair at the best of times. So getting aid into some of the more isolated affected areas could be very difficult and quite slow.

The only good news (if there is any) is that it happened now and not a few months ago in the depths of winter. At least in spring weather people have a better chance of survival, even with minimal shelter. And now is certainly better than at the height of summer, when larger amounts of drinking water would be much more urgently needed.