January 16, 1979 Earthquake: Bonzanabad, Iran

Name: January 16, 1979 Earthquake: Bonzanabad, Iran
Start: 1979-01-16
Location: Bonzanabad, Iran

January 16, 1979 · M6.5 · 129 deaths · 1,700 houses destroyed

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Bonzanabad, Iran on January 16, 1979 at 09:50:09 UTC, 33 km below the surface. It killed 129 people.

Map

Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.

The earthquake

Date: January 16, 1979
Time: 09:50:09 UTC
Place: Bonzanabad, Iran
Magnitude: 6.5 (Mw)
Magnitude scales: Mw 6.5 · Ms 6.8 · mb 5.9
Focal depth: 33 km (21 mi)
Intensity: VIII, severe shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: None recorded
Epicenter: 33.918° N, 59.555° E
Country: Iran
Region: Middle East
USGS record: The USGS’s page for this earthquake

Mw: moment magnitude, based on the slip on the fault and the area that slipped. Ms: surface-wave magnitude. mb: body-wave (P-wave) magnitude. NCEI’s headline magnitude is the best of these for the earthquake.

The toll

Deaths: 129
Injuries: 200
Damage: Moderate (about $1 to $5 million)
Houses destroyed: 1,700

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.

Magnitude estimates

The magnitudes the USGS catalog lists for this earthquake, by scale and by who computed them. NCEI’s own scales are in the table above.

Mag.	Scale	Computed by	Notes
6.7	Ms, surface-wave	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
6.49	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
6.5	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

Reference #1053, #45 lists at least 200 deaths and many injured and considerable damage in Bonzonabad and surrounding areas.

Reference #12864 lists 129 killed and 200 injured, >3 villages destroyed and 1700 houses destroyed.

Sources NCEI cites

The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.

#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]
#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.
#1053 National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) (1971 to 2013). Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (PDE), a weekly and monthly publication, National Earthquake Information Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Golden, Colorado, 1971 to 2013.

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

Significant earthquakes of 1979 The 1900s Every quake the USGS located in 1979 Recent earthquakes near here This day in weather history

Sources

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 4825. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event usp0000yf2, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.