April 16, 2013 Earthquake: Mashkal, Iran, Pakistan

Felt Report

At least 40 people killed, 300 injured, 35,000 homeless, 1,000 houses damaged and utilities disrupted in the Mashkel area, Pakistan. Unconfirmed reports of about 27 people injured in southeastern Iran. Felt (V) at Al Muharraq and (III) at Manama, Bahrain. Also felt (V) at Ajman and (IV) at Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ra's al Khaymah, United Arab Emirates. Felt (IV) at Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida; (III) at Ahmadabad, Jaipur, New Delhi and Surat, India. Felt (IV) at Bandar `Abbas and Zahedan and (III) at Shiraz, Iran; (IV) at Kuwait City and (III) at Al Ahmadi and Hawalli, Kuwait; (IV) at As Sib al Jadidah and (III) at Bawshar and Muscat, Oman; (IV) at Hyderabad, Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan; (IV) at Ad Damman and (III) at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; (III) at Doha, Qatar. Also felt in Afghanistan.

Tectonic Summary

The April 16, 2013 M 7.8 earthquake east of Khash, Iran, occurred as a result of normal faulting at an intermediate depth in the Arabian plate lithosphere, approximately 80 km beneath the Earth's surface. Regional tectonics are dominated by the collisions of the Arabian and India plates with Eurasia; at the longitude of this event, the Arabian plate is converging towards the north-northeast at a rate of approximately 37 mm/yr with respect to the Eurasian plate. Arabian plate lithosphere is subducted beneath the Eurasian plate at the Makran coast of Pakistan and Iran, and becomes progressively deeper to the north.

The subducted Arabian plate is known to be seismically active to depths of about 160 km. The frequency of moderate and large earthquakes within the subducted Arabian plate is not high compared with similar events in some other subducted plates worldwide, but several earthquakes have occurred within this slab in the region of today's event over the past 40 years, including a magnitude 6.7 shock 50 km to the south in 1983. In January of 2011, a M 7.2 earthquake occurred approximately 200 km to the east, in a similar tectonic environment to the April 16 earthquake.

(above from reference #1053)

A Pakistani military official says 34 people were killed after a massive earthquake hit the Iranian-Pakistan border region Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. The U.S. Geological Survey put the preliminary magnitude of the earthquake at 7.8 and at a depth of nine miles, and Iran's seismological center said it was centered near Saravan, a sparsely populated area about 26 miles from the Pakistani border. At least 80 people were injured in Pakistan, according to a military official. All of the dead and injured so far were in the Pakistani town of Mashkal, the Associated Press reports. Up to 1,000 mud homes reportedly were damaged in the quake. Pakistani news channels showed buildings shaking in the southern city of Karachi, where panicked residents ran out of offices and homes. Hatam Narouyi, the provincial governor of the southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan region in Iran where the earthquake struck, said there were no casualties, Reuters reports. (reference #10503)

Elahi said 35 people in Pakistan died in the earthquake but cautioned that the death toll could rise because authorities have yet to reach some of the even more remote villages affected by the quake. In comparison to the devastation in Mashkel, the Iranian government has reported only one person killed and 12 injured on its side of the border. (reference #10506)

41 deaths, 175 injured (reference #1250)

36 deaths (reference #13045)