Bam, Iran 2003 Earthquake

There are earthquakes everywhere in this Earth. Earthquake is the natural hazard that happens often everywhere on Earth. Many countries suffered from this natural hazard. One day, in the city Bam in Iran, which is located in South-eastern corner Kerman province. Bam is a historic silk road city, known as great place where tourists go and visit or to stop for rest. The size of Bam is about 1,000 kilometers, which was on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Many regional centers in the 16th and 17th centuries, it contained many ancient buildings that were not that strong which can stand for earthquake. There is also a 2000 year old mud-brick citadel which is reported that it had been destroyed. The place is also registered in U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which means it is a fabulous historical place which even Americans agree.

Every fridays is a not working day for Iran, so people came home from their work place to spend their time at home so they went back home at evening of Thursday the 25th of December. Around 4am on Friday the 26th of December there was an earthquake, which shook some houses. Some people got up from their beds and went outside for a while and went back home and then at 5:27am, the second earthquake struck. The day that this earthquake happen is exactly on December 26, 2003, at 5:27am. This earthquake's magnitude was 6.6 which is quite strong to make buildings collapsed. The reason that this earthquake happen is by the strike-slip faults in a zone and a southwards happening of earthquakes from the Kuh Banan to the Gowk and the Bam fault, which can be the only reason why earthquake happen, by the two lands slipping together.


Surprisingly, many people lived in this hazard zone, because it's at the middle of the country and it is near the ocean. There are a lot of historical sites, which made uncountable numbers of tourists to come and visit the city, Bam. This persuaded the people to live around there, even it's in the hazard prone area, because they know they will earn a lot of money there because of the tourist that come and visit the historical places. However, people who lived there, after the earthquake happen people moved out from the city. The result of the of the earthquake was pretty bad looking. The result of the earthquake was estimated 43,000people were died, 20,000people injured, and 60,000people were homeless. Also, around 70% of the houses in Bam had been destroyed. Roofs and ceilings looked like it's made up of many layers of bricks to keep the house cool in summer, but these collapsed immediately when the earthquake happened. Which made tens of thousands of people buried under the houses. The telephones, electricity and water supplies had been cut by the tremor (earthquake), and buildings had collapsed badly. Iran is not a well developed country, so Iran can be considered as Least Economically Developed Country. Iran could not anything after the earthquake, so the effects were losing a lots of houses, buildings. Also, two of the city's hospitals had collapsed, crushing many stuffs, and the hospitals were full of people that are injured. This shows that the country is not well developed, which need other countries' help.



After the earthquake there were many things which is done about it. First, emergency centers were set up for the ten of thousands who had been injured. Second, relief workers from Iran and about 60 countries had been trying to help those tens of thousands of survivors who are homeless and the ones who are suffering; without basic needs. Countries like Russia, Britain, Germany, and Spain volunteered to help Iran by sending relief teams and supplies. The Red Crescent sated up tents for the people who survive from the earthquake. However, there were no possible prevention methods in the city of Bam, because this city was not a well developed city and the buildings were not so strong. The historical sites were not built strong enough which can not stand for earthquake, which is the reason why most of the historical sites were collapsed.


This graph shows how big the earthquake had spread.


This picture shows the before/after of the Bam Historical Sites.
As you can see, from the picture that the beautiful historical sites had been destroyed and look like stones on the ground.


Web Sources:
http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/bam_quake.htm
http://www.farsinet.com/bam/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3348613.stm
http://earth.esa.int/ew/earthquakes/Bam_Iran_Earthquake/
http://www.ngi.no/english/images/bam_pic2.jpg
http://www.state.gov/cms_images/040101_iran.jpg
http://www.iiees.ac.ir/english/bank/Bam/bam_report_english_recc.html