Tabas Earthquake: 25,000 Perish in Iran

The city of Tabas in eastern Iran was virtually erased from the map on September 16, 1978, when an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck at 7:35 p.m. local time. Roughly 25,000 people died, most of them buried beneath the collapse of traditional mud-brick buildings that offered almost no resistance to the violent shaking. The earthquake destroyed 85 percent of the city’s structures and killed an estimated 40 percent of its population, making it one of the deadliest seismic events of the twentieth century. Tabas sat near the junction of several active fault systems at the western edge of the Lut Desert, a region where the Arabian tectonic plate grinds against the Eurasian plate. The area had experienced moderate earthquakes before, but nothing of this magnitude in recorded history. The main shock was followed by hundreds of aftershocks, some exceeding magnitude 5, which collapsed structures that had survived the initial event and hampered rescue efforts. The timing of the earthquake compounded the human toll. The shock struck in the early evening, when families had gathered indoors for dinner. The heavy mud-brick and timber roofs of traditional Persian architecture, designed to insulate against the desert heat, became lethal crushing weights when the walls beneath them gave way. Many survivors were trapped for days without water in the desert heat before rescuers could reach them. The nearest major city, Birjand, was over 200 kilometers away across difficult terrain, and Iran’s road infrastructure in the region was minimal. The disaster struck during one of the most turbulent periods in Iranian history. The revolution against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was accelerating, with massive protests and strikes paralyzing the country. The government’s slow and disorganized response to the earthquake further eroded public confidence in the monarchy. Ayatollah Khomeini, then in exile in Iraq, used the disaster to criticize the regime’s priorities and competence. Within five months, the Shah had fled Iran and the Islamic Revolution had reshaped the Middle East. Tabas was rebuilt in subsequent decades, but with earthquake-resistant construction standards that reflected the hard lessons of September 1978.