M 5.6 in Islamic Republic of Iran on 24 Mar 2023 03:16 UTC

Event summary

This earthquake can have a low humanitarian impact based on the magnitude and the affected population and their vulnerability.

GDACS ID EQ 1366392
Earthquake Magnitude: 5.6M
Depth: 17.884 Km
Lat/Lon: 38.462 , 44.8446
Event Date: 24 Mar 2023 03:16 UTC
24 Mar 2023 07:46 Local
Exposed Population: 220 thousand in MMI VI
Inserted at: 24 Mar 2023 03:36 UTC
INFORM Coping capacity:
4.6 (Islamic Republic of Iran)

GDACS Score

For more info on GDACS alert score click here.
  Earthquake
(Shakemap)		 GDACS score
NEIC 0.1 0.1
us7000jmbi Scaled population (vector) 0  
  C1 shakemap 0.11  
  C2 shakemap 0.4  
  Country Vulnerability 0  
  INFORM_normalised 0.94  
Maximum expected impact using different data sources.
Virtual OSOCC
Meteo assessment
Satellite products
Analytical products
Iran - Earthquake (ECHO 24 Mar 2023)Fri, 24 Mar 2023 10:48

  • An earthquake of 5.6 M at a depth of 18 km occurred in the far north-western Iran, near the border with Türkiye, on 24 March at 3:16 UTC (7:46 local time). The epicentre was located approximately 11 km south-west of the Khoy City (West Azerbaijan Province) and 45 km east of the border with far eastern Türkiye.
  • USGS PAGER estimates that up to 196,000 people were exposed to strong shaking and up to 301,000 people to moderate shaking.
  • Media report, as of 24 March, a number of damaged houses across villages nearby the epicentre, while there are no report of damaged houses across the Khoy City. The earthquake was felt also across the neighbouring Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (southern Azerbaijan, bordering with northern Iran).
  • The same area already suffered from a 5.9 magnitude earthquake on 28 January and two 5.8 magnitude earthquakes, respectively, on 18 January 2023 and in October 2022.
Detailed event map. European Union, 2024. Map produced by EC-JRC.
The boundaries and the names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the European Union.

Updates on volcanic activity (Smithsonian)

Latest media headlines

Articles: 4 | About casualties: 0 | Last hour: 0

Türkiye to heal wounds of quake-hit regions: Erdoğan2023-03-27T09:25+0200.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday reiterated the importance of rebuilding the country's southern region in the wake of powerful earthquakes last month that claimed the lives of more than 50,000 people. "Our aim is to raise up the ear
...(more)
Green earthquake alert (Magnitude 5.6M, Depth:17.884km) in Islamic Rep ... 2023-03-24T22:29+0100.

Iran - Earthquake (ECHO 24 Mar 2023) Fri, 24 Mar 2023 10:48 An earthquake of 5.6 M at a depth of 18 km occurred in the far north-western Iran, near the border with Türkiye, on 24 March at 3:16 UTC (7:46 local time). The epicentre was locate
...(more)
Quake survivors in SE Türkiye welcome Ramadan in containers, ships2023-03-24T13:51+0100.

Nearly 2 million Muslims in southeastern Türkiye started this year's fasting month of Ramadan on Thursday sheltering in containers and tent cities, where they broke their first fast. Meals prepared by various nongovernmental organizations (
...(more)
Ramadan, Zuppi: «Uniamo le forze per soccorrere popolazioni colpite da ... 2023-03-24T11:28+0100.

All’inizio del mese di Ramadan, ieri, 23 marzo, il cardinale presidente della Cei Matteo Zuppi ha inviato un messaggio alla comunità islamica. «Vi propongo all’inizio del vostro mese di digiuno e preghiera, di unire le forze per la realizza
...(more)

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Estimated casualties (PAGER)

USGS estimates the number of casualties for each earthquake for the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) product.
The graph shows the current fatalities estimate.

Exposed population

Data, images, links, services and documents

For this events, GDACS has links to information from the following sources: EC-JRC (48), (3), NEIC (4), OCHA (1), INGV (1), DesInventar (1), WMO (1), USGS (5), INFORM (2),