M 6.3, southern Iran

[EMSC]

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/images/globes/30_50.jpgTuesday, April 9, 2013 11:52:50 UTC
Tuesday, April 9, 2013 03:22:50 PM at epicenter

Depth: 10.00 km (6.21 mi)





More... (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usb000g2y5.php)

[MorningSong]

Iran says nuclear plant 'undamaged' by quake

Magnitude 6.1 earthquake kills three people after striking 100km from Bushehr, the country's only nuclear-power station.

Last Modified: 09 Apr 2013 14:32

A powerful 6.1-magnitude earthquake has struck Iran near the Gulf port city of Bushehr, home to the country's only nuclear power plant, killing at least three people, according to state television and officials.

Fereydoon Hasanvand, governor of Bushehr, said the nuclear plant was undamaged by Tuesday's earthquake.

"No damage at all has been caused" to the plant, he told state television.

The Russian company that built the nuclear-power station, 18km south of Bushehr, said the quake had been felt there but that operations at the plant were not affected.

"The earthquake in no way affected the normal situation at the reactor.

Personnel continue to work in the normal regime and radiation levels are fully within the norm," Russian state news agency RIA quoted an official at Atomstroyexport as saying.

Resident's account

One Busehr resident said her home and the homes of her neighbours were shaken by the quake but not damaged.

"We could clearly feel the earthquake," Nikoo, who requested to be identified only by her first name, told Reuters news agency by telephone.

"The windows and chandeliers all shook."

The quake hit at 1152 GMT with a depth of 12km, the Iran Seismological Centre said.

The US Geological Survey, which monitors quakes worldwide, ranked the quake at a more powerful 6.3 magnitude.

Tremors from the earthquake in western Iran could also be felt in Gulf countries.

In Doha, the Qatari capital, residents told Al Jazeera that they could feel buildings shake before residents were evacuated.

There was no immediate reports of damage.

Six aftershocks

Iranian media said search and rescue teams had been dispatched to the area, to which telephone connection has been cut.

The seismological centre has so far reported six aftershocks, the strongest at 5.3 magnitude.

Speaking to the ISNA news agency, the head of Iran's Red Crescent rescue corps, Mahmoud Mozafar, said there was a possibility of "damage," considering the rural nature of the stricken area, home to some 12,000 inhabitants.

He did not elaborate.

Iran sits astride several major fault lines and is prone to frequent earthquakes, some of which have been devastating.

A double earthquake, one measuring 6.2 and the other 6.0, struck northwest Iran in August last year, killing more than 300 people and injuring 3,000.

In December 2010, a big quake struck the southern city of Bam. It killed 31,000 people - about a quarter of the population - and destroyed the city's ancient mud-built citadel.
Source:
Al Jazeera And Agencies


http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/04/201349122759954931.html