October 5, 1962 Earthquake: Torbat Heydariyeh, Akhmedabad, Iran

Date

October 5, 1962

Time

20:02:00 UTC

Place

Torbat Heydariyeh, Akhmedabad, Iran

Magnitude

5 (Ms)

Magnitude scales

Ms 5 · Unspecified 5

Focal depth

8 km (5 mi)

Intensity

VIII, severe shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale

Tsunami

None recorded

Epicenter

35.100° N, 58.700° E

Country

Iran

Region

Middle East

Ms: surface-wave magnitude. Unspecified: the method was not stated in the published sources. NCEI’s headline magnitude is the best of these for the earthquake.

Deaths

6

Damage

Moderate (about $1 to $5 million)

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

1. #45 U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey and U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (1928-1986). United States Earthquakes, Annual publication, published 1928-1986. vol.s for 1928-1965 issued by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey; volumes for 1966-1969 issued by the National Earthquake Information Center; volume for 1970 issued by the National Geophysical Data Center; volumes for 1971-1972 issued by the National Geophysical And Solar-Terrestrial Data Center; volumes for 1973-1980 published jointly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey; volumes for 1981-1986 published by the U.S. Geological Survey. [on shelf]
2. #223 Kondorskaya, N.V., and N.V. Shebalin, editors (1982). New catalog of strong earthquakes in the U.S.S.R. from ancient times through 1977. Report SE-31, World Data Center A for Solid Earth Geophysics, NOAA, National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA, 608 p.
3. #1040 Rothe, J.P. (1969). The Seismicity of the Earth 1953-1965, United National Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris, France, 312 p. plus maps.
4. #12864 Berberian, Manuel (2005). The 2003 Bam urban earthquake: a predictable seismotectonic pattern along the western margin of the rigid Lut block, southeast Iran. Earthquake Spectra, 21(1_suppl), 35-99.
5. #1191 Berberian, Manuel (1976). Geological Survey of Iran, Tectonic and Seismotectonic Research Section, Report no. 39, Contribution to the Seismotectonics of Iran (Part II), Ministry of Industry and Mines, Tehran, Iran, 516 p.

• 1101, Khorasan, IranM6.5 · 60,000 deaths · 104 km
• October 21, 1336, Khaf, IranM7.6 · 20,000 deaths · 101 km
• August 31, 1968, Dasht-E-Bayaz, IranM7.1 · 10,488 deaths · $35 million · 12,000 houses destroyed · 110 km
• July 30, 1673, Mashhad, Neyshabur (Nishapur), IranM6.6 · 5,600 deaths · 144 km
• January 30, 1549, Qayen (Qain),khorasan, Iran3,000 deaths · 182 km
• May 10, 1997, Birjand, Ghaen, Afghanistan, IranM7.2 · 1,728 deaths · $100 million · 10,533 houses destroyed · 174 km
• December 19, 1618, Dughabad,khorasan, Iran800 deaths · 65 km
• February 16, 1941, Mohammadabad, IranM6.3 · 730 deaths · 175 km
• September 1, 1968, Ferdow, IranM6.2 · 700 deaths · 1,500 houses destroyed · 131 km
• December 14, 1925, Bajestan, IranM5.5 · 500 deaths · 78 km
• September 23, 1947, Dustabad, IranM6.9 · 500 deaths · 166 km
• September 25, 1903, Kashmar, IranM5.9 · 350 deaths · 47 km
• November 14, 1979, Khorasan, IranM6.6 · 171 deaths · 216 houses destroyed · 162 km
• January 16, 1979, Bonzanabad, IranM6.5 · 129 deaths · 1,700 houses destroyed · 153 km
• November 27, 1979, IranM7.1 · 20 deaths · 163 km

Significant earthquakes of 1962The 1900sEvery quake the USGS located in 1962Recent earthquakes near hereThis day in weather history

Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 4279.