Earthquakes in Iran, 2017–2026
From 2017 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 609 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in or off Iran. The strongest was a magnitude 7.3 on November 12, 2017 (Kermanshah; Iraq: Kurdistan).
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded 3 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.
The latest: magnitude 4.5 on October 16 (70 km NNE of Mīnāb, Iran). The strongest: magnitude 4.5 on October 16 (65 km NNE of Mīnāb, Iran).
What the record holds
It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 630 deaths for it. 30 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 19 of the events here, 685 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.4 on December 5, 2024 (31 km SE of Masjed Soleymān, Iran). NOAA lists one tsunami that began in or off Iran. The highest water NOAA records here was 3 m, on March 19, 2017. The deadliest, on March 19, 2017, killed 2 people here by NOAA’s runup records.
The events
- December 5, 2024Earthquake · M 5.431 km SE of Masjed Soleymān, IranUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- November 14, 2021Earthquake · M 6.463 km NNW of Bandar Abbas, Iran · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- February 23, 2020Earthquake · M 6.037 km ESE of Özalp, Turkey · 10 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- November 7, 2019Earthquake · M 5.9Miyaneh · 5 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- November 25, 2018Earthquake · M 6.3Kermanshah; Iraq: Kurdistan · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- December 1, 2017Earthquake · M 6.155 km NNE of Kerman, IranUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- November 12, 2017Earthquake · M 7.3Kermanshah; Iraq: Kurdistan · 630 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- April 5, 2017Earthquake · M 6.1Sefid Sang · 2 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
- March 19, 2017Tsunami · 3 m herePersian Gulf · 2 deaths here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for Iran when it began inside its borders, or at sea within 100 km of its coast (so one can count for two neighbours), or further out, up to 300 km, where Iran is the nearest country.
- USGS counts are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
- NOAA lists significant events only: earthquakes that killed, did about $1 million of damage, reached magnitude 7.5 or intensity X, or raised a tsunami, and eruptions and tsunamis by like measures. Magnitudes before 1900 are its estimates from written accounts.
- Deaths are NOAA’s total for each event, wherever people died, its tsunami and fires included. A tsunami counts the dead its runup records give for this place: NOAA’s total for a tsunami includes its source quake’s.
- A tsunami from elsewhere counts where one of its runups killed or rose a metre or more.
- The map frames the box around Iran, its neighbours’ quakes included, so its count runs higher than this page’s.
- Counted to October 19, 2026, as is the map. The last 30 days ask USGS again.
How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Earthquakes, live, The world through history