lessons from november 2017, m7.3 ezgeleh earthquake

Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, being crossed by several major active faults on the alpine-himalayan belt. the earthquake of the evening of november 12, 2017 with a moment magnitude of 7.3 has been one of the most destructive earthquakes over the past two decades in iran. this earthquake was strong enough to be felt ina vast region by over 100 million people and resulted in a large number of casualties in kermanshah province (620 people according to the latest published reports) in addition to extensive financial losses.the earthquake epicenter was located 10 km south of ezgeleh and about 37 km northwest of sarpol-e-zahab (34.84°n, 45.7°e) with approximately 18 km in depth.