Two earthquakes measuring 6.4 and 6.3 on the Richter scale hit southern Iran at  3:37 p.m. local time on Sunday, killing at least one person and injuring dozens of others.

Officials say the damage is still being assessed. The two quakes came in quick succession with less than one-minute separation. The epicenters were relatively shallow, estimated to originate from a depth of 6.2 miles. The epicenters of both earthquakes were located about 39 miles northwest of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan province.

فیلمی از ریزش کوه گنو بر اثر #زلزله pic.twitter.com/F0ACWeipLN

— شرق (@SharghDaily) November 14, 2021

Damage and destruction

ISNA news agency said a number of homes were destroyed in the Bandar Abbas area and landslides were reported at Geno Mountain. One person in the city of Kerman was killed when a light pole he was walking next to fell. The supply of electricity supply has been disrupted in many parts of Hormozgan.

The tremors were also felt as far away as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Residents in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Ras al-Khaimah reported buildings and homes shaking following the earthquake in Iran.

#Dubai tremors: Many residents were evacuated from their buildings (this is in Barsha Heights). The quake took place in Iran. https://t.co/HheOv7MzxD pic.twitter.com/qzgXzrVj2t

— Aarti Nagraj (@aartinagraj) November 14, 2021

Iran’s nuclear program and earthquakes

The quakes did not harm the nuclear power plant in nearby Bushehr Province, local authorities said according to state news. But the earthquake did coincide with a mile marker in the Iranian effort to create a nuclear weapon to attack Israel. A recent report in Israel Hayom claimed that despite the Biden administration’s efforts to reinstate the Iran nuclear deal at any cost, all involved parties are beginning to openly acknowledge that said deal will not materialize. This is evidenced by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s decision not to meet with the US special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, while he is in Israel. Talks are expected to be held at the end of the month in Vienna but it is becoming clear that Iran will not return to any agreement restricting its nuclear program.

#Dubai tremors: Many residents were evacuated from their buildings (this is in Barsha Heights). The quake took place in Iran. https://t.co/HheOv7MzxD pic.twitter.com/qzgXzrVj2t

— Aarti Nagraj (@aartinagraj) November 14, 2021

The recent earthquake is only one of many that accompanied major steps in the Iran nuclear program.

In April, Bushehr province was shaken by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake, leaving five people injured. Iranian authorities claimed the nuclear power plant was undamaged but it was shut down in June for unspecified repairs.

This coincided with an explosion at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant. Iran accused Israel of carrying out a “terrorist attack.

In April 2016, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Qasemi told reporters in a weekly meeting in Tehran that Israel was doomed. Two days later, which happened to be Israel’s Independence Day, the Iranian nuclear reactor was hit by an earthquake.

Approximately 31,000 people were killed in December 2003 when a 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck near the city of Bam in southeast Iran

It is interesting to note that in February, the Biden administration made an offer to Iran to begin negotiations that would bring the US back into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal. Towards that end, the administration rescinded the former Trump administration’s efforts to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran. It was the first time in four years the US government had made such an offer.

It is also interesting to note that in 2013, then-Secretary of State John Kerry revealed that while Iran was still shaking in December 2003, the regime had offered a version of the JCPOA to President Bush. The offer came on the eve of the US-led invasion of Iraq. This was at the time that UN nuclear inspectors got their first look at a previously secret facility in Natanz, Iran. They were shocked to discover 160 newly installed centrifuges that had just become operational. 1,000 more centrifuges were about to go online. Bush rejected the deal and Iran began the process of enriching uranium for its nuclear program.

Since 1900, at least 126,000 fatalities have resulted from earthquakes in Iran. The two most deadly were the Tabas-e-Golshan earthquake of 16 September 1978 and the Rudbar-Tarom earthquake of June 1990. They were, in fact, the most catastrophic earthquakes to have occurred in Persia to date in the 20th century.

The 1978 earthquake destroyed or severely damaged about ninety villages, slightly damaged another fifty villages in the region, and completely demolished the oasis town of Tabas-e-Golshan, where 85 percent of the inhabitants (11,000 out of 13,000) perished. Total fatalities were more than 20,000 with thousands injured. It affected an area of 1,130,000 square kilometers and destroyed over 15,000 housing units.

That deadly catastrophe coincided with the height of the Iranian revolution that brought down the Pahlavi Dynasty, the last Persian royal dynasty, ending more than 1,500 years of uninterrupted rule by a Persian monarchy. 

The Rudbar-Tarom earthquake, the largest in this century to affect an urban area in the region, killed over 40,000 people, injured 60,000 and left more than 500,000 homeless. The earthquake destroyed three towns and 700 villages and damaged another 300 villages in Gilan and Zanjan provinces of northwest Persia. Nearly 100,000 buildings were destroyed or badly damaged. Water supplies in 283 villages were destroyed or reduced by 70 percent, several thousand livestock were buried under debris, and farms and irrigation canals were seriously damaged. Economic losses caused by this earthquake have been estimated at $7.2 billion, constituting 7.2 percent of the GNP. 

Though this earthquake predated the JCPOA, it did mark a milestone in the Iranian nuclear program. It was in 1990 that Iran signed a ten-year nuclear cooperation agreement with China. This allowed them to rebuild the damaged Bushehr nuclear power plant. Work had been stopped in 1978 due to the Iranian Revolution and the site had been targeted and damaged during the Iran-Iraq War. The plant began operations in 2011 but has been shaken many times by earthquakes. 

The JCPOA was signed in July 2015, Though no earthquake struck Iran, in August, one month after the Iran deal was signed, Iran was hit with a heatwave in which the heat index was as high as 164℉ (73℃). 

Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, being crossed by several major faults that cover at least 90% of the country. As a result, earthquakes in Iran occur often and are destructive. Iran is well known for its long history of disastrous earthquake activity.