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Bam Earthquake (2003)

At approximately 5:26 A.M. local time on December 26, 2003, a 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck the historic, ancient city of Bam in southeast Iran. Over 40,000 people—almost half the total population of the city—died that day. More than 20,000 were injured, with 6,000 reported missing. The destruction to the city was vast. More than 90 percent of Bam's buildings, including the historic 17th-century citadel of Arg-e-Bam, were wholly destroyed or left beyond repair, leaving much of the city's population homeless.

The city of Bam is located in an active seismic zone. Although large parts of Iran have very high seismic activity with small tremors occurring on an almost daily basis, Bam and the surrounding area had no reported great historical quakes and no historical records of large, damaging earthquakes prior to the 2003 quake. The presence of the 2,000-year-old Arg-e-Bam citadel, as well as historical adobe and masonry buildings in the region, indicates that these buildings did not experience strong earthquakes since their construction. Therefore, the Bam region was not regarded as an area of high seismic risk and the Bam fault was identified as inactive.

The rupture of the Bam fault, the main tectonic feature of the area that runs directly under the city, caused the earthquake. The 31-mile-long, right-lateral strike-slip fault with a north-south trend is considered rare, as it is a hidden fault with no visibility at the surface. The earthquake occurred at a shallow depth, with the epicenter located approximately 6.2 miles southwest of Bam. The causative fault virtually traversed the city. This, together with the fact that the quake struck when most people were asleep, attributed to the high death toll.

Substandard Building Codes

Due to poor materials and ignored building codes, the majority of Bam's houses and buildings, including almost all public and commercial buildings, were flattened by the earthquake; in all, over 27,000 buildings were leveled. As a key regional center in the 16th and 17th century, Bam contained a significant number of ancient buildings that were not constructed to withstand earthquakes. A significant factor in the high death toll was that many people were crushed to death as they slept, a result of the collapsing, traditionally built mud brick homes that buried people in piles of rubble and earth.

As a comparison, only a few days earlier, an earthquake with the same magnitude led to just three casualties in the state of California. Some regions and villages, particularly rural areas, were completely obliterated. Virtually the entire infrastructure of the region, including schools, roads, and hospitals, was destroyed or severely damaged.

Bam's health system was completely devastated: 122 clinics, the only two hospitals in Bam, and health houses were leveled. Adobe and masonry buildings suffered the highest level of damage in the earthquake, whereas the reinforced concrete and steel-frame buildings suffered the least. Questions were raised about Bam's substandard housing, with one member of Parliament calling for the Minister of Housing to be prosecuted for failing to ensure the safety of Iran's construction. Prior to the quake, very little modern earthquake education existed. Coordinated relief efforts were launched immediately, with over 60 countries pledging assistance. Local and international NGOs provided technical training and support, paying particular attention to capacity-building and social reconstruction issues. Currently, the rebuilding of Bam and recovery of lost livelihoods continues. The Iranian government commissioned a new microzonation map that was incorporated into the new master plan for the city, which includes building away from the fault lines that run through it. Buildings have been constructed following strict adherence to Iran's seismic design code and using earthquake-resistant materials. Grants and low-interest loans were made available for the rebuilding and reconstruction of commercial and residential buildings.

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