The earthquake that struck northern Iran brought reminders of another quake that devastated Soviet Armenia in 1988. Like Thursday's earthquake in Iran, the Dec. 7, 1988, earthquake in Armenia killed about 25,000 people. Most died in structures that collapsed when the quake hit. ``It's very similar to what we had in Armenia,'' said Russ Needham, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. The Armenian quake was measured at 6.9 on the Richter scale, but Thursday's earthquake shook the earth with a magnitude of 7.7 according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In the Iranian quake, the casualty count was pushed up by the fact that people were indoors and asleep at the time, just after midnight. Many of the victims lived in fragile homes built of a ceramic-type brick or adobe that collapses easily. In the Armenian quake, a Soviet parliamentary report later blamed the high number of fatalities on shoddily built buildings. ``Most casualties from earthquakes are caused by something falling on top of you,'' said Needham in a telephone interview from Golden, Colo. The quake struck an area of Iran where most of the buildings are built on a flood plain of loosely deposited soil that shifts in an earthquake and allows structures to collapse, Needham said. The 7.7-magnitude quake was the largest ever recorded in that area, where two major plates of the earth's crust meet, he said. ``Iran is in a very active seismic region,'' he said, and that there have been many smaller quakes. Twelve earthquakes greater than magnitude 7 have occurred in Iran during the last 30 years, Needham said. A quake of magnitude 7 is considered a major earthquake, capable of widespread, heavy damage in populated areas.
The earthquake that hit Northern Iran on Thursday was similar to the one that struck Armenia last December. Thursday's quake measured 7.7 on the Richter Scale; the one in Armenia measured 6.9. Shoddily construction was cited as the major factor in the 25,000 deaths in Armenia. Most of the victims in Thursday's quake also lived in fragile homes, and the death toll could surpass the Armenian disaster because the people were inside and asleep. Iran is a very active seismic area. Twelve quakes of a magnitude greater than seven have hit Iran in the last 30 years.