Document n°1 : Introduction
On December 26, 2003 at 5.27 local time (01.56 TU) a quake shook the province of
Kerman in the south-west of Iran, near the two thousand-year-old city of Bam. Its epicentre was located at 29.004°N and 58.337°E and its focus at a depth of 10 km. It had a magnitude of 6.6 on the Richter scale and about 80 tremors in the course of the following days, worsened the damage. The 100 to 120.000 people who lived in Bam and the surrounding villages have been very badly hit by the quake, especially because it occurred at the end of the night. The
Iranian government estimates that about 42.000 persons have lost their lives and that more than 30.000 have been wounded. The quake has caused considerable material damage; the historic city of Bam has been severely hit and between 40 and 60.000 people have been left homeless. More than 80% of the city has been destroyed, taking into account the numerous buildings that will have to be pulled down.
Source : http://www.ens-lsh.fr/geoconfluence/doc/breves/2004/1.htm
Document n°2 : Locating the city of Bam
Source : http://www.ens-lsh.fr/geoconfluence/doc/breves/2004/1.htm

Document n°3 : Life after the catastrophe.
Source : Agence Reuters
An Iranian woman sits in a tent at a camp for survivors of the Bam earthquake with her sons 1285 kilometers southeast of Tehran
January 7, 2004. More than 30, 000 people died in last month's earthquake.
REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl
Iranians set up tents in front of the earthquake destroyed Bam Citadel in southeastern Iran, January 2, 2004. The quake which measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, struck directly beneath Bam while most of its
100,000 people slept. At least 30,000 people died and government officials have said the final toll may reach 50,000, making it one of the world' s worst disasters of recent decades.
REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl
Source : Agence Reuters
An Iranian boy holds bottles of mineral water in front of a tent in Bam January
3, 2004. About 90 percent of the mostly mud-brick buildings in the ancient Silk Road city collapsed in last
Friday's quake, killing at least 30,000 people in one of the world's worst natural disasters in recent decades.
REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl
Source : Agence Reuters

Document n°4 : A devastated city.
Located on the ancient silk road, the citadel made of mud-bricks and its tens of towers was reputed to be impregnable in the Middle Ages. Bam, which had been restored in the 70s was the pride of the province of Kerman. Considered to be the second most important tourist attraction after Ispahan, it attracted many visitors. Today, there is hardly anything left. The once prosperous oasis now looks like a sand castle that would have been laminated by tidal waves. The modern town, dominated by the ancient fortress, has been almost entirely destroyed.
Source : from Le Vif/L’Express (2/1/2004).
Document n° 5: Che citadel, before and after the catastrophe
Source : Le Vif/L’Express, 2/1/2004
Document n° 6: The historic city of Arg-e-Bam
Source : Le Soir, 27/12/2003

Document n°7 : Temporary figures…
The seism that hit the city of Bam has made 25 000 casualties so far (December 29,
2003). But these figures might be only temporary. Winter season in Bam is harsh, as show on the ombrothermic diagram of Teheran, located higher north (2 or 3°C less in Bam). In that season, the anticyclone from Russia brings along very cold air that might increase the number of victims, since a large number of people now live under tents. The risk of epidemics of respiratory diseases linked to the cold winter weather is indeed very high...
Sources : http://www.meteolafleche.com/Climatologie/seismebam.htm
, www.climatsdumonde.be and le Vif/L’Express, 2/1/2004.

Document n°8 : Locating the people affected by the Bam quake and assessing their number

Document n°9
Observing an earthquake itself by means of remote sensing and optical captors is practically impossible. But remote sensing can be very useful to assess the consequences of such catastrophes.
The image below is an extract from an IKONOS picture of the historic citadel of the city of Bam taken the day after the quake. The citadel, which together with the historic city, was nearly completely destroyed by the quake was considered to be one of the marvels of
Iran’s – and even of the world’s- cultural patrimony. That impressive citadel of Arg-e-Bam had been erected round 500 BC and had been in use until 1850. So far, it had been spared by earthquakes. Located on the silk road, it was the world’s largest adobe (mixture of clay and straw) and mud-brick building.
Extract from na IKONOS picture of the Bam citadel, Decembre 27, 2003
© Space Imaging
QuickTime™ et un décompresseur TIFF (non compressé) sont requis pour visionner cette image.

Document n°10 : The damage caused.
Source : http://www.ens-lsh.fr/geoconfluence/doc/breves/2004/1.htm
Document n°11 : Why so many victims?
The magnitude* (M = 6,6 Richter) of the Bam seism is far from equalling that of other major seisms (M = 8 and more). It is just above that of the seism in Saguenay (Québec,
Canada) in 1988 (M = 6,0 Richter) where there were no casualties and no injuries, just some minor damage. A combination of different factors explain the devastating effect of the seism and the heavy toll of human lives: a relatively heavy tremor of 6,6, a focus located 8 km right under the city, the fragility of the buildings and the time at which the seism occurred (05h25): the town was sleeping.

Document n°12 : Earthquake near Los Angeles
A seism, with a magnitude* of 6.5, occurred on December 22, 2003 in the State of
California. According to the US Geological Survey, the epicentre of the earthquake was located 300 km north west of Los Angeles, where it was felt at 11.15. The damage is very limited and there are no victims.
Source : Le Soir, Decembre23, 2003
Document n°13 : Tectonic* plates around Iran
Source : Le Vif/L’Express, 2/1/2004

Document n°14 : Seisms in the south east of Iran since 1990
The tectonic* context can account for this dramatic event. The seism results from constraints caused by the collision* between the arabic plate to the south and the eurasian plate to the north. The figure below shows the history of seismicity since 1990 in that very area. The star indicates the Bam seism, the purple line the collision zone of the plates
(subduction*), and the black lines the borders between countries. It should be noticed that it is mainly low depth seismicity.
Source : http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2003/eq_031226/

Document n°15 : Characteristics of the Bam seism
The seism occured in a fault (...) that runs across the city of Bam, called the Bam fault, as shown on the figure below. It is part of a complex network of faults (...) There had been no major seism in the Bam area for at least 2000 years, contrary to the neighbouring areas. It was a sismic “gap” which had to be filled sooner or later.
Source : http://www.iiees.ac.ir/English/Bam_report_english_seismicity.html

Document n°16 : The Bam fault