1990 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake

1990 severe earthquake centered in northeastern Iran September 2023 1990 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake Collapse of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings, Iran (Persia) - 1990 Manjil Roudbar Earthquake.jpg Collapsed unreinforced masonry buildings 1990 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake shakemap.jpg Strong ground motion map Iran 1990-06-20 21:00:14 366754 iscgem366754 y 1990 06 21 00:30:14 IRST 7.4 w y 15 km mi 0 on 37.07 49.28 region:IR_type:event inline,title Strike-slipBerberian Qorashi Jackson Priestley 1992 1752, 1753 Iran $8 billion XBerberian Qorashi Jackson Priestley 1992 1731 Rudbar Fault 35,000–45,000 dead 60,000–105,000 injured 105,000–400,000 displaced The 1990 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake (fa زمین‌لرزه ۱۳۶۹ رودبار و منجیل yes; glk زلزله رودبار yes) occurred on Thursday, 21 June 1990 at 00:30:14 local time 21:00:14 June 20, 1990 UTC in the Caspian Sea region of northern Iran. The shock had a moment magnitude of 7.4 and a Mercalli Intensity of X (Extreme). Devastation occurred in a 20,000 km2 area, causing extensive damage in several cities. A large aftershock also added to the destruction. Between 35,000 and 50,000 people died in the earthquake; another 60,000–105,000 were injured. Tectonic setting Iran is one of the most seismically active regions in the world. Northwestern Iran lies within northern part of the complex zone of collision between the Arabian plate and Eurasian plate. The Arabian plate is moving northwards relative to the Eurasian plate and the dominant style of faulting in the western Alborz Mountains involves movement on major thrust faults, combined with subordinate left-lateral strike-slip faulting.Ajorlou N. Hollingsworth J. Mousavi Z. Ghods A. Masoumi Z. 2021 Characterizing Near-Field Surface Deformation in the 1990 Rudbar Earthquake (Iran) using Optical Image Correlation Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 22 6 e2021GC009704 10.1029/2021GC009704 free 2021GGG....2209704A https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03454844/file/Geochem%20Geophys%20Geosyst%20-%202021%20-%20Ajorlou%20-%20Characterizing%20Near%25u2010Field%20Surface%20Deformation%20in%20the%201990%20Rudbar%20Earthquake%20.pdf Earthquake The focal mechanism of the earthquake indicate that the event corresponded with left-lateral strike-slip faulting with an epicenter in Gilan province. Surface rupture of about 80 km was observed along three segments of the previously unknown Rudbar Fault. Displacements estimated in the field gave an average of 60 cm left lateral motion combined with 95 cm of vertical motion, much lower than would be estimated from the observed magnitude. Optical correlation techniques using SPOT satellite imagery and aerial photographs have given estimates of 220 cm left lateral movement, better matching the magnitude and suggesting that a significant proportion of the displacement may have occurred off the main fault strand. On 22 July 1983, a w 5.5 earthquake struck Mazandaran province, killing 30 people. That earthquake although situated just southwest of the 1990 earthquake's epicenter, is unlikely a foreshock to the 1990 event. The Coulomb stress transfer from the 1983 source fault to the 1990 earthquake source fault was insufficient. Stress modelling showed the 1983 earthquake had decreased crustal stress in the epicenter area of the 1990 earthquake rather than increasing it.Sarkarinejad Khalil Ansari Shoja Did the 1983 Charazeh earthquake trigger the destructive 1990 Rudbar earthquake? International Journal of Earth Sciences 2015 104 1 309–319 10.1007/s00531-014-1072-z 2015IJEaS.104..309S 128759564 Damage and casualties Widespread damage occurred to the northwest of the capital city of Tehran, including the cities of Rudbar and Manjil. The total area of devastation was measured to be 20,000 km2.2009-11-13 Earthquake devastates Iran June 21, 1990 https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-21/earthquake-devastates-iran 2026-06-14 HISTORY en The National Geophysical Data Center estimated that $8 billion in damage occurred in the affected area. Other earthquake catalogs presented estimates of the loss of life in the range of 35,000–50,000, with a further 60,000–105,000 that were injured and 400,000 rendered homeless. The earthquake struck 30 minutes after midnight when most people were sleeping in their basic mud dwellings, a major factor contributing to the high death toll. The morning after the mainshock, a 6.5 magnitude aftershock hit the city of Rasht, causing a dam to break and creating a large flood and landslide, flooding and wiping out huge swaths of farmland. Other landslides also made many roads unusable, with one landslide next to Rudbar moving up to 20 million cubic meters of land. There were at least 223 landslides recorded within a 11.3 km2 area with a total volume of 380,000,000 m3. 10.1007/s10064-021-02106-8 Statistical analyses of landslide size and spatial distribution triggered by 1990 Rudbar-Manjil (Mw 7.3) earthquake, northern Iran: revised inventory, and controlling factors 2021 Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment 80 3381–3403 Vanani Ali Asghar Ghaedi Gholamreza Shoaei Mehdi Zare 4 2021BuEGE..80.3381G 231682696 The earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in the densely populated region of the Alborz mountains.Berberian Manuel Walker Richard The Rudbār Mw 7.3 earthquake of 1990 June 20; seismotectonics, coseismic and geomorphic displacements, and historic earthquakes of the western 'High-Alborz', Iran Geophysical Journal International 182 3 2010 10.1111/j.1365-246x.2010.04705.x 1577–1602 2010GeoJI.182.1577B free Damage was extreme in the cities of Manjil, and Rudbar; Khalkhal and Nowshahr also recorded significant damage. In Tehran, the damage was slight.https://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/today/index.php?month=6&day=20&submit=View+Date Today in Earthquake History United States Geological Survey 30 September 2023 Soil liquefaction also caused extensive damage in an area of about 80 km to the northeast of the earthquake's epicenter, ruining irrigation canals, pipelines, and splitting pavements apart. Water wells were also filled with boiled sand.Nateghi F. June 20, 1990 Earthquake of Northern Iran: An Overview International Conferences on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics 20 June 1990 https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icrageesd/02icrageesd/session12/7/ 30 September 2023 In some of the smaller, hard-to-reach towns in the Alborz mountains, there were no survivors and no house was left standing.Ed 2016-06-21 This Day In History; An Earthquake Killed Thousands In Iran (1990) https://historycollection.com/today-history-earthquake-killed-thousands-iran-1990/ 2026-06-14 History Collection en-US Most buildings destroyed were unreinforced masonry buildings, or UMBs, buildings made out of unsupported brick, cinderblock or other masonry elements which will collapse during strong earthquakes like the Iran earthquake.Mehrain M Reconnaissance Report on the Northern Iran Earthquake of June 21, 1990 https://www.buffalo.edu/mceer/catalog.host.html/content/shared/www/mceer/publications/NCEER-90-0017.detail.html|Reconnaissance 2026-06-14 Buffalo.edu en Tsunami The earthquake was accompanied by a small, localized tsunami in the Caspian Sea. The waves were reported to reach 2 meters (6.5 ft) and inundated up to 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) inland. Presumably, an underwater landslide contributed to the notable tsunami, taking place on the steep shores of the continental shelf in the area. Although there were no reported casualties or severe damage in the wake of the tsunami, it reaffirmed the existence of a tsunami in the Caspian Sea and suggested that an underwater landslide that could be caused by an earthquake near the area could cause a life-threatening and potent tsunami.Salaree Amir Okal Emile A. 2015-03-09 Field survey and modelling of the Caspian Sea tsunami of 1990 June 20 https://academic.oup.com/gji/article/201/2/621/573760 Geophysical Journal International en 201 2 621–639 10.1093/gji/ggv044 free 1365-246X https://web.archive.org/web/20230808121544/https://academic.oup.com/gji/article/201/2/621/573760 2023-08-08 Aftermath and relief efforts The earthquake took place as Iran was recovering from the Iran-Iraq war that ended just two years prior. Due to anti-American sentiment in Iran at the time, with the earthquake taking place just 10 years after the Iranian Revolution, Iranians initially did not want to accept help from the United States and other western countries, but they were not in a position to launch an extensive relief effort on their own.Earthquake shakes Iran's view of its enemies The Washington Post 2 July 1990 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/07/02/earthquake-shakes-irans-view-of-its-enemies/d4573bc9-6f7d-40f0-84f8-5eb6cecdeb8f/ 30 September 2023 11 March 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230311174136/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/07/02/earthquake-shakes-irans-view-of-its-enemies/d4573bc9-6f7d-40f0-84f8-5eb6cecdeb8f/ dead The Iranian government and the governments that responded to the earthquake issued over 2,900 tents for the unhoused and camps for hundreds of thousands of people affected by the disaster. 170,000 blankets were also sent in to protect Iranians from the cold.https://reliefweb.int/report/iran-islamic-republic/iran-earthquake-jun-1990-undro-situation-reports-1-14 Medical supplies and equipment sent to Iranian earthquake survivors ReliefWeb UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs 1 October 2023 21 June 1990 An unusual outbreak of acute renal failure (ARF) occurred in the aftermath of the earthquake, with the number of victims needing dialysis support rising to 156, with a mortality rate of 14 percent. Patients with ARF were more severely injured and usually had nerve damage, elevated muscle enzymes, and abnormal urinalysis.Acute renal failure in earthquake victims in Iran: epidemiology and management 1994 Quarterly Journal of Medicine 87 1 35–40 M. R. Atef I. Nadjatfi B. Boroumand A. Rastegar 8140215 Use in media Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami fictionally incorporated the earthquake and its effects on northern Iran into multiple films of his. In And Life Goes On (1992), a director and his son search for child actors from a previous Kiarostami film; Where Is the Friend's Home? (1986), which was shot in a city that, by the time of the second film's production, is recovering from the earthquake. Kiarostami's next film Through the Olive Trees (1994) follows a film crew as they shoot scenes from Life, and Nothing More...; in one of these scenes a man discusses his marriage having taken place a day after the earthquake. Critics and scholars often refer to these three films as the Koker trilogy, and rank them among the director's finest works.2013-03-17 Days in the Country: Representations of Rural Space and Place in Abbas Kiarostami's Life and Nothing More, Through the Olive Trees and The Wind Will Carry Us – Senses of Cinema http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/abbas-kiarostami/kiarostami_rural_space_and_place/ 2026-06-14 en-US See also Iran List of earthquakes in 1990 List of earthquakes in Iran References ISC-GEM Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (1900–2009) http://www.isc.ac.uk/iscgem/index.php ISC 19 January 2015 International Seismological Centre Version 2.0 PAGER-CAT Earthquake Catalog https://earthquake.usgs.gov/static/lfs/data/pager/catalogs/ September 4, 2009 United States Geological Survey Version 2008_06.1 Sources The Rudbar-Tarom earthquake of 20 June 1990 in NW Persia: Preliminary field and seismological observations, and its tectonic significance http://bssa.geoscienceworld.org/content/82/4/1726.abstract M. Berberian Ma.nuel Berberian M. Qorashi J. A. Jackson K. Priestley T. Wallace Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 1992 82 4 1726–1755 Further reading The Rudbar Mw 7.3 earthquake of 1990 June 20; seismotectonics, coseismic and geomorphic displacements, and historic earthquakes of the western 'High-Alborz', Iran http://www.iris.edu/data/reports/1990/90-013/IRAN.1990eq.report.pdf M. Berberian R. Walker 2010 Geophysical Journal International 182 3 1577–1602 10.1111/j.1365-246x.2010.04705.x 2010GeoJI.182.1577B free Redmond A. D. Watson S. Nightingale P. The South Manchester Accident Rescue Team and the Earthquake in Iran, June 1990 BMJ: British Medical Journal 1991 302 6791 1521–1523 10.1136/bmj.302.6791.1521 1855026 1670205 29712007 External links 7.4 – northern Iran – United States Geological Survey 366754 Man Category:Earthquakes in Iran Earthquake Category:June 1990 in Iran Category:History of Gilan Category:1990 disasters in Asia Category:1990s disasters in Iran