archaeoseismology in iran and the need for revisiting historical earthquakes case study: m=7.9, 856 ad qumis earthquake proclaimed as deadliest earthquake in iranian plateau

Iran has a long history of devastating earthquakes which have claimed lives of hundreds of thousands of people both in ancient and modern times. in fact iran is high on the list among 10 countries with earthquake fatalities both in terms of the absolute number of casualties and the number of deaths divided by population (figure 1-a). moreover, in terms of thenumber of significant earthquakes in documented history iran tops the list (figure 1-b).