Borujerd earthquake, March 2006
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the early morning of March 31, 2006 an earthquake occurred in the South of Borujerd with a massive destruction in Borujerd, Silakhor and Dorood areas of the Lorestan Province in Western Iran. The centre of the earthquake was in Darb-e Astaneh Village in South of the Borujerd City.
A lighter fore shake happened the night before and people stayed outside over the night and this reduced the number of casualties significantly. However, the main shake at 4:47 a.m on March 31, shook Borujerd, Dorud and other towns and villages on Silakhor Plain for more than 55 seconds. The earthquake was 6.1 degree in Richter Scale.
This powerful earthquake shook the entire land of Lorestan Province and most areas of Hamedan Province, Markazi Province and destroyed many villages in Khorramabad, Alashtar and Arak County as well. More than 180 post shakes followed the main earthquake in April, May and June and people had to stay outside for several weeks.
More than 40 major historical monuments of Borujerd were destroyed by the earthquake and 30% of the historical downtown of the city (2.7 kmª) was ruined or damaged thoroughly [1]. Other monuments damaged by the earthquake include:
- Jame Mosque of Borujerd (900 A.D.)
- Soltani Mosque of Borujerd
- Imamzadeh Ja'far, Borujerd
- Chalenchoolan Bridge
- Ghaleh Hatam Bridge
- Birjandi Old House of Borujerd
- Mesri Old House of Borujerd
- Imamzadeh Khalogh Ali
- Tekyeh Movassaghi
- Pahlavei High School
Apart from UN agencies e.g. UNESCO and UNICEF, there are other international agencies functioning in the field, including MSF, Caritas Italy, Operation Mercy, ACH Spain and ACT Netherlands [2][3].
[edit] Facts of Borujerd earthquake
- 66 people killed
- 1450 people injured
- 330 villages destroyed (30-100%)
- 45000 houses destroyed (30-100%) only in the City of Borujerd
- 136 schools destroyed 100% and more than 200 other schools were damaged only in Borujerd and its villages [4]
