GeoActive 340

Online
THE BAM EARTHQUAKE, by Steve Richardson

IRAN 2003
26 December 2003 Date Region Magnitude Deaths
A disaster waiting to 26 December South-eastern Iran 6.6 31,000
happen 21 May Northern Algeria 6.8 2,266
24 February Southern Xinjiang,China 6.3 261

E ARTHQUAKES occur
because friction builds up
between moving plates, and is
1 May
22 January
Eastern Turkey
Offshore Colima, Mexico
6.4
7.6
177
29
21 July Yunnan, China 6.0 16
released suddenly. The earth 1 December Kazakhstan-Xinjiang border region 6.0 11
moves rapidly, often over short
27 May Northern Algeria 5.8 9
distances, but occasionally by
25 October Gansu-Qinghai border region, China 5.8 9
up to as much as 10 metres or
25 February Southern Xinjiang, China 5.4 5

III Felt quite noticeably by people Figure 2: Earthquakes around the world in 2003
indoors, especially on upper
floors of buildings. more in one jump. This means The earthquake year 2003
IV Felt indoors by many, outdoors that movement in the ground Globally, there were many
by a few during the day. At
night, some awakened.
can accelerate rapidly: the thousands of earthquakes in
faster the acceleration, the 2003 much like any other year
V Felt by nearly everyone, many
awakened. Some dishes and
greater the chance of damage to with only a few causing loss of
windows broken, unstable structures. Such massive life or damage to property. The
objects overturned. movements are rare, but they Bam earthquake was devastating,
VI Felt by all, many frightened. do produce catastrophic results. with easily the largest number of
Heavy furniture moved; a few So, most earthquakes are very deaths for a number of years
instances of fallen plaster. small, with tens of thousands
Damage slight. (Figure 2).
being recorded every year, only
VII Damage negligible in buildings a handful causing any damage. Of the top ten deadly
of good design and
construction; slight to moderate In most cases the movement is earthquakes of 2003, the Bam
in well-built ordinary structures. only a matter of millimetres, earthquake was the only one to
VIII Damage slight in specially and such earthquakes are more occur in a densely populated
designed structures. Fall of of a gradual creeping of the area. However, seismically, Iran
chimneys, factory stacks, plates past each other. Every is a very active area. Figure 3
columns, monuments and
walls. Heavy furniture
now and then the plates stick, shows some of the major
overturned. and this sets up the conditions earthquakes of the last century in
IX Damage great in substantial for a large earthquake. Iran. One of the most obvious
buildings, with partial collapse. things about these earthquakes
Buildings shifted off Magnitude is measured on the has been the continued high
foundations. levels of deaths from what in
Richter scale, and is the amount
X Some well-built wooden of energy released by an other countries, eg California in
structures destroyed; most the USA, would be significant
masonry and frame structures earthquake. The modified
destroyed. Rails bent. Mercalli scale is also used to earthquakes but would not result
describe the impact of an in many fatalities.
XI Few if any (masonry) structures
remain standing. Bridges earthquake (Figure 1). That
destroyed. Rails bent greatly. scale is based on observed 26 December 2003
XII Damage total. Lines of sight impacts caused by earthquakes. earthquake
and level distorted. Objects The Bam earthquake had a The earthquake of 26 December
thrown into the air.
maximum Mercalli intensity of 2003 occurred early in the
Figure 1: Modified Mercalli around VIII to IX. morning (05:26 local time) along
intensity scale the Bam fault. Records show that

Series 17 Autumn issue Unit 340 The Bam Earthquake, Iran 2003 2005 Nelson Thornes GeoActive Online
This page may be photocopied for use within the purchasing institution only. Page 1 of 4
 Date Magnitude Comments forcing Iran into a zone of high
mountains and plains. Much of
2 July 1957 7.4 About 2,000 dead; northern Iran.
the country is over 1,000 m
13 December 1957 7.3 More than 2,000 killed, many injuries; above sea level, and the Zargoz
Hamadan and Kermanchah.
and Elburz Mountains flank the
1 September 1962 7.3 Over 10,000 killed, many injured, and 294 south-western and northern sides
villages wrecked or damaged.
of the country, rising to over
31 August 1968 7.3 12,00020,000 killed, thousands injured;
Khorassan.
4,000 m for considerable
distances. There are active
10 April 1972 7.1 5,054 killed and many injured; around Qir
volcanoes in Iran, and a
in southern Iran. continuing high risk of
24 November 1976 7.3 Estimated 5,000 deaths; north-western earthquakes.
Iran/Russia border.
21 March 1977 6.9 At least 167 killed, 556 injured; Bandar The immediate aftermath
Abbas area.
There was a rapid response to
16 September 1978 7.8 15,000 killed; Tabas.
the disaster by the international
11 June 1981 6.9 3,000 killed; Kerman Province.
community, with promises of
28 July 1981 7.3 1,500 people killed and 1,000 injured; emergency and long-term aid.
Kerman region.
The city of Bam was built almost
20 June 1990 7.4 Estimated 40,00050,000 people killed; entirely of mud-bricks and was
Rasht-Qazvin-Zanjan area.
ill-equipped to cope with the
21 June 1990 5.8 At least 20 people killed; aftershock in violence of this earthquake.
Lowshan-Manjil area.
28 February 1997 6.1 At least 1,100 people killed and 2,600
injured; Armenia-Azerbaijan-Iran border.
Many people had relatives buried
underneath rubble. In one case as
22 June 2002 6.5 At least 261 people killed; Ab Garm-Abhar-
Avaj-Shirin Su area. many as 17 people from one
family were reported to be
26 December 2003 6.6 At least 26,200 people killed and 30,000
injured; Bam area. buried. Help seemed to be slow
in reaching the people, and the
Figure 3: Major earthquakes in Iran
Iranian authorities were criticised
there had been no recorded cm per year relative to the by many of the survivors. Both
major earthquakes on the Bam Eurasian plate, into which the food and water were in short
fault over the past 2,500 years. Iranian plate is being slowly supply. The earthquake had
What made this earthquake so pushed (Figure 4). The forces destroyed underground water
devastating was that many involved here are tremendous, storage tanks and the qanats
residents of the city were still
sleeping. The traditional mud-
brick and clay homes put up little TURKMENISTAN
resistance to the violent shaking, Caspian
and walls and roofs crumbled Sea
and collapsed. More than
100,000 victims were trapped
beneath the rubble and of these
around 30,000 lost their lives.
Close to 11,000 of the citys
IRAQ
students perished, along with IRAN
one in five of Bams 5,400
teachers. Tens of thousands were
left homeless and up to 6,000 KUWAIT
children lost a parent or parents. Bam
Arg-e-Bam (Bam Citadel, a very
large castle), the largest mud- SAUDI
brick complex in the world, and N
ARABIA Th
e
many other historical buildings, Gu
lf
were almost totally destroyed.
0 500 km
The earthquake Key Gulf
U.A.E.
The Arabian plate is moving Plate boundary OMAN of Oman

northwards at a rate of 2.1 to 2.5

Figure 4: Plate boundaries across Iran

GeoActive Online Series 17 Autumn issue Unit 340 The Bam Earthquake, Iran 2003 2005 Nelson Thornes
Page 2 of 4 This page may be photocopied for use within the purchasing institution only.
(water pipelines) which supplied work has been done, with public of household. Now, in many
them. buildings being made safe and households there is no older
brought back into use, and with male, and women have to fill the
Around the country thousands of research into appropriate traditional male roles.
people gave blood, but there building materials.
were also calls for help from Although the media coverage of
overseas. Iran had been a rather People are being offered loans of earthquakes concentrates on
closed and secretive country $11,000 from the government to headline issues such as the
since the Islamic Revolution of build new earthquake-proof number of deaths, there are
1979, so the calls for help homes. However, they are many longer-term issues about
indicated the depth of the crisis. reluctant to take up the loans (if which we seldom hear or read. It
The Iranian authorities requested they know about them) because is possible to see three stages in
sniffer dogs, field hospitals, there is much unemployment, dealing with a disaster such as an
medicines, food, blankets, and people may not be able to earthquake.
shelters and detection pay them back. 1 Relief meeting immediate needs
equipment. Firefighters from for medical care, food and shelter.
Britain volunteered to take By the end of 2005, about 5% of This may last for days or weeks
specialist equipment for finding the houses had been rebuilt. This depending on the scale of the
people trapped under the rubble. may seem very slow, but 85% of disaster.
The field hospitals were needed the city had been destroyed, 2 Coping rebuilding lives and
because local hospitals could not including 195 schools and 3 structures. This phase is where
cope with the numbers of hospitals which needed peoples lives are returned to a
injured, and many people had to rebuilding, so a great deal of daily pattern. This period may last
be flown to the next nearest careful planning and money was from weeks to months or possibly
hospital at Kerman for necessary before the rebuild. years.
treatment. Around 4,000 people 3 Recovering adjusting to changed
were sent to hospital in the Employment conditions, where a head of family
provincial capital, Kerman, some Most of the people of Bam made has died, or where people have to
175 km away, but up to 1,600 a living by growing dates and adopt a new role, eg a child
aid workers from 44 countries, from the thousands of tourists becomes a wage earner or an
and resources from 60 countries, orphan. Physical structures may be
who flocked to see the 2,000-
arrived to help with the recovery. repaired, but social and personal
year-old castle of Arg-e-Bam. adjustment continues. This phase
The dead had to be buried This castle was a magnet for lasts for years possibly for a
swiftly, in accordance with visitors from all over the world, lifetime. Losing both parents or all
Muslim custom. and the tourists money created a of your children is something that
good range of jobs in the area. has to be lived with. Such damage
Two years on ... Now these jobs have been lost, as cannot be repaired.
Progress has been slow. Most of very few people want to visit the
Bams inhabitants no longer live devastated city and its ruined
in tents they are housed in castle.
temporary shelters on their plots
of land close to where the ruins Long-term recovery
of their homes lie. Sub-zero The physical damage is
temperatures are common in significant, but in theory that can
winter, and in summer there is be repaired quite quickly. More
little relief from the heat of the difficult to repair is the trauma
sun. Plans for the reconstruction caused by the loss of relatives
of Bam are not yet finalised, and and friends. According to
there are difficulties over the use UNICEF, some 4,800 children
of building materials. Residents lost both their parents. Some
do not want to use the children have had to be placed in
traditional mud-brick they orphanages in other cities.
want buildings that can Shock, anger and grief affected
withstand earthquakes. There is a everyone.
feeling that the people have been
let down by the government, There have been social changes
advisors of which had known too. Bam was a reasonably well-
that it is possible to construct to-do city, but it was
buildings to withstand conservative, following the
earthquakes. However, much tradition of having a male head

Series 17 Autumn issue Unit 340 The Bam Earthquake, Iran 2003 2005 Nelson Thornes GeoActive Online
This page may be photocopied for use within the purchasing institution only. Page 3 of 4
 Activities TURKMENISTAN

1 (a) On a copy of Figure 5, and

referring to an atlas, locate the
earthquakes listed in Figure 3.
Remember to give your map a
title, and to label the locations
as clearly as possible. You could IRAQ IRAN
use a symbol or colour to show
how large the earthquake was,
or how many people were KUWAIT
killed.
(b) Describe the pattern of the
earthquakes shown on your
map. SAUDI
(c) How many people have died ARABIA
in Iran since July 1957?
N
2 (a) Look carefully at Figure 2.
Is there a relationship between 0 500 km U.A.E.
the magnitude of the earthquake OMAN

and the number of deaths that

occur? What can account for the Figure 5: Outline map of Iran
pattern you describe?
(b) Plot a pie chart to show the 5 Suggest at least two reasons enough emphasis on earthquake
pattern of deaths that occurred for the high death toll from the protection?
in 2003 from earthquakes. To Bam earthquake.
simplify your pie chart, calculate
the total number of deaths, and 6 Many countries in the world
then work out the percentage of promised emergency aid after
world deaths that occurred in the earthquake.
the Bam earthquake. Your pie (a) What were the most pressing
chart will have two segments, needs of the population of Bam?
one for Bam and the other for (b) Would it have been possible
The rest of the world. for any of these needs to be met
by the local population and
3 (a) Using a textbook, an services? How had the
encyclopaedia or the internet, earthquake reduced the capacity
find out the details of the of the city to respond to the
Richter scale. disaster?
(b) Which is more useful in
giving you the impression of the 7 Why has recovery from the
power of an earthquake, the earthquake been so slow? In
Mercalli scale or the Richter your answer consider these Useful websites
scale? Explain your answer. questions: National Geoscience Database of
(c) Visit the National Geoscience Who would do the work? Iran (pictures of the damage):
Database of Iran website at the www.ngdir.ir/PhotoGallery/
address given in the box (right). Would local people stay in the
PhotoAlbums.asp?Pcategory
town or move elsewhere?
Look at the pictures of the Code=17&PID=176&offset=0
destruction of Bam. Describe the Did all of the aid arrive in Bam?
BBC News (factual reports and
scenes in the pictures you have Could all of the aid (both some background information):
examined. emergency and long-term aid) be
used? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/
4 On a copy of Figure 5, mark middle_east/3355083.stm
the major plate boundaries, and 8 Given the number of Guardian newspaper (articles, maps
show the direction of movement earthquake-related deaths and an interactive guide):
of the plates. Remember to give during the second part of the
www.guardian.co.uk/international/
your map a title and a key as 20th century, do you think the
story/0,,1113450,00.html
necessary. government of Iran has placed

GeoActive Online Series 17 Autumn issue Unit 340 The Bam Earthquake, Iran 2003 2005 Nelson Thornes
Page 4 of 4 This page may be photocopied for use within the purchasing institution only.