Quake hits near Iran's nuclear city Bushehr, 37 dead

Quake hits near Iran's nuclear city Bushehr, 37 dead Tue, Apr 09 18:40 PM EDT 1 of 2 By Yeganeh Torbati and Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake struck close to Iran's only nuclear power station on Tuesday, killing 37 people and injuring 850 as it destroyed homes and devastated two small villages, Iranian media reported. The 6.3 magnitude quake totally destroyed one village, a Red Crescent official told the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), but the nearby Bushehr nuclear plant was undamaged, according to Iranian officials and the Russian company that built it. "Due to the intensity of this earthquake, this tragedy has deepened and we have seen the destruction of many homes in the region, the deaths of 37 people and more than 850 injured," the governor of Bushehr province, Fereydoun Hassanvand, told Mehr news agency. Many houses in rural parts of the province are made of mud bricks, which have been known to crumble easily in quake-prone Iran. Some 700 homes were destroyed, Hassanvand said. Across the Gulf, offices in Qatar and Bahrain were evacuated after the quake, whose epicenter was 89 km (55 miles) southeast of the port of Bushehr, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The early afternoon shock was also felt in financial hub Dubai. The Russian company that built the nuclear power station, 18 km (11 miles) south of Bushehr, said the plant was unaffected. "Personnel continue to work in the normal regime and radiation levels are fully within the norm," Russian state news agency RIA quoted an official at Atomstroyexport as saying. Iran informed the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency that there was "no damage to the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and no radioactive release from the installation", an agency statement said. One Bushehr resident said the quake shook her home and the homes of her neighbors but they were not damaged. "We could clearly feel the earthquake," Nikoo, who asked to be identified only by her first name, said. "The windows and chandeliers all shook." While initial fears about nuclear fallout receded, nearer the epicenter the rescue efforts ramped up into the night in search of survivors and to feed and house hundreds of residents who were traumatized by at least 16 aftershocks. A Red Crescent official told ISNA that 20 people had been saved by rescue teams searching through the rubble. Reports in Iranian media spoke of landslides destroying buildings and crowds gathering in the town of Dashti from outlying areas in search of help. Military officials said army and police units had been deployed to maintain order. Water and electricity lines were severed and communities stayed in the streets because of the threat from aftershocks. Iran's most powerful authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, offered his condolences to the victims and urged authorities to extend all efforts to save lives and help the afflicted. Tuesday's quake was much smaller than the 9.0 magnitude one that hit Japan two years ago, triggering a tsunami that destroyed back-up generators and disabled the Fukushima nuclear plant's cooling system. Three of the reactors melted down. Iran is the only country operating a nuclear power plant that does not belong to the Convention on Nuclear Safety, negotiated after the 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl which contaminated wide areas and made 160,000 Ukrainians homeless. Western officials and the United Nations have urged Iran to join the safety forum. REPEATED WARNINGS Tehran has repeatedly rejected safety concerns about Bushehr - built in a highly seismic area - that began operations in September 2011 after decades of delays. Iran sits on major fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years, including a 6.6 magnitude quake in 2003 which flattened the southeastern city of Bam and killed more than 25,000 people. In August more than 300 people were killed when two quakes struck the northwest. A report published last week by U.S. think-tanks Carnegie Endowment and the Federation of American Scientists said that "ominously" the Bushehr reactor sits at the intersection of three tectonic plates. "Iran's sole nuclear power plant is not at risk of a tsunami similar in size to the one that knocked out the electricity and emergency cooling systems at Fukushima. But, repeated warnings about the threat of earthquakes for the Bushehr nuclear plant appear to have fallen on deaf ears," the report said. The quake happened on National Nuclear Technology Day when Iran's leaders celebrate the technological advances they say will reduce the country's reliance on fossil fuels, leaving more of its abundant oil for export. Israel, Gulf Arab states and many Western countries fear Tehran is seeking a nuclear weapons capability and the Islamic Republic is under international sanctions aimed at forcing it to curb some of its atomic work. Iran denies it wants nuclear arms and says its atomic work is for electricity generation and other peaceful uses. (Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna, Regan Doherty in Doha, Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Michael Roddy and Jon Hemming)

Russian pipeline blast, quake strike 2014 Olympics host Sochi

Russian pipeline blast, quake strike 2014 Olympics host Sochi Wed, Dec 26 01:53 AM EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - A gas pipeline blast followed by a mild earthquake has struck Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics, a local government spokeswoman told Reuters on Wednesday. Irina Gogoleva of Russia's Emergencies Ministry said no one was hurt and there was no apparent damage to the city's infrastructure after a 5.2 magnitude earthquake was reported at 0242 local time on Wednesday (2242 GMT on Tuesday). "The Emergencies Ministry servicemen scoured through the city districts, bridges and electrical cables, there was no damage," Gogoleva said, adding that the epicentre of the quake was some 150 kilometres (93 miles) off Sochi in the Black Sea. In an unrelated incident, a gas pipeline that feeds a local power station exploded a couple of hours before the quake. Gogoleva said the power plant had switched to fuel oil and the city was receiving electrical power. She said the reason for the blast was unknown. Sochi, the first Russian city to have been awarded the Winter Olympics, is located on the coast close to Georgia, with whom Russia fought a brief war in 2008 over two breakaway regions. The wider volatile Caucasus region is a major source of political tension. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Paul Simao)

7-plus magnitude quake hits Canada's British Columbia

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Sun, Oct 28 00:18 AM EDT (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake with a 7.7 magnitude hit Canada's Pacific coast province of British Columbia late Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported But there were no immediate reports of damage. The quake was centered 123 miles south-southwest of Prince Rupert at a depth of 6.2 miles, the USGS said. Earthquakes Canada said it detected a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in the Haida Gwaii region, placing it 43 miles west-southwest of Queen Charlotte City. "It was felt across much of north-central B.C., including Haida Gwaii, Prince Rupert, Quesnel, and Houston. There have been no reports of damage at this time," the agency said in a statement on its website. The quake was not felt in the larger cities of Victoria and Vancouver in the south, a resident in each city told Reuters. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said no destructive tsunami was expected from the quake but the West Coast-Alaska Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for coastal sections of British Columbia and Alaska. (Reporting by Will Dunham; With additional reporting by Jeffrey Hodgson, Nicole Mordant and Jennifer Kwan) ============== Earthquake kills five in eastern Iran LAST UPDATE Wed, 05 Dec 2012 21:11:48 GMT At least five people have been killed and several others injured in a magnitude 5.5 earthquake that struck eastern Iran, near the Afghan border. The tremor hit the province of South Khorasan at 20:38 local time (17:08 GMT) on Wednesday. The epicenter of the quake was 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the town of Zohan, at a depth of nine kilometers, the Iranian Seismological Center said on its website. "Based on the latest reports from the scene, the quake killed five people and injured 12 others," South Khorasan Crisis Management Headquarters Director Mohammad Ali Akhoundi told Mehr news agency. Javad Heravi, who represents the province in the Iranian parliament, said that the quake caused damage to rural buildings and cut power lines and telephone communication. Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes, experiencing at least one small tremor per day on average. More than 300 people died and over 3,000 others injured in two powerful earthquakes and subsequent aftershocks that rocked the country’s northwestern province of East Azarbaijan in August. In December 2003, about 27,000 people were killed and 30,000 others injured when a 6.6-magnitude earthquake shook the historic city of Bam in southeastern Iran. The deadliest earthquake in modern Iranian history was a 7.4-magnitude tremor that occurred on June 21, 1990 and affected Gilan and Zanjan provinces. About 40,000 people were killed, 60,000 others were injured, and around 100,000 adobe houses sustained major damage or collapsed. ========================= Quake measuring 7.7 strikes in Pacific off Alaska Sat, Jan 05 04:25 AM EST (Reuters) - An earthquake of 7.7 magnitude struck in the Pacific Ocean about 60 miles southwest of Port Alexander in Alaska on Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake struck at a depth of about 6 miles at 0858 GMT, the survey said. (Reporting By Pravin Char; Editing by Angus MacSwan)