An earthquake measuring 4 degrees on the Richter scale jolted the outskirts of Bojnord, the capital of North Khorasan Province, early Wednesday.
According to the Geophysics Institute of Tehran University, the tremor occurred 17 km from Bojnord at 2:34 am local time and was registered at a depth of 12 kilometers, IRNA reported.
The province was also jolted by six minor aftershocks following the quake. There were no reports of possible damages or casualties.
Iran sits astride several major seismic faults, and is prone to frequent earthquakes, many of which have been devastating. The worst in recent times hit Bam in Kerman Province in December 2003, killing 31,000 people - about a quarter of its population - and destroying the city’s ancient mud-built citadel.
The deadliest quake was in June 1990 and measured 7.7 on the Richter scale. Around 37,000 people were killed and more than 100,000 injured in the northwestern provinces of Gilan and Zanjan. In August 2012, two quakes in northwestern Iran also claimed the lives of 306 people and injured more than 4,500 others.
