2005 Qeshm Earthquake - Damage and Casualties

Damage and Casualties

Lasting between 10 and 30 seconds, the earthquake hit at 13:52:19 local time, or 1:52 pm (10:22:19 UTC). It killed 13 people and injured 100 locals on Qeshm Island. In Zirang (Ziranag), a nearby village on Qeshm, 80 percent of the buildings were demolished. Thirteen villages were destroyed including Tonban, Ramekan, Gavarzin, Khaledin, Direstan, Kushe, Karavan, Turyan, Tom senati, Gorbehdan, Ziranag, Giahdan, and Gourian, seven other villages experiencing extensive damage.Mercalli scale Intensity III damage was reported in Bandar Abbas, and in Abu Zabi, Ajman, Dubayy, al-Fujayrah and Ras al Khaymah; Intensity IV damage (moderate) occurred at Sharjah. The earthquake was reported in Oman. No major damage occurred at the epicenter; residents of the city did report that the shaking burst windows, leading citizens to evacuate their homes in fear of collapse. In total more than 2,000 people were affected.

One major hospital crowded with the injured and lacking medical supplies for treatment and an airport on the epicentral island sustained damage, and power lines on the island were severed. Buildings in Dubai, including the Emirates Towers, were evacuated because of concerns they might collapse, but no such incidents occurred. The director of Tehran's seismological building dismissed fears of a tsunami, saying that the Persian Gulf was not "deep enough" to create one. In one school, some suffered broken legs when the building collapsed, but no fatalities occurred. One woman described the locals as "panicked". Television stations throughout Iran released footage of quake damage and of injured residents being taken to hospitals.

A damaging landslide and 36 major aftershocks of more than magnitude 2.5 (in total, 400 aftershocks) followed the earthquake. Damage at the eastern wall of an old Portuguese fortress eventually destroyed it. A Portuguese admiral stationed in Qeshm had ordered the fortress to be constructed in 1507.