Massive earthquake to hit Iran & Gulf states: expert
Says would cause Japan-like disaster
A massive earthquake, similar to the one that hit Japan recently, is set to hit Iran and might reach the Arab Gulf states as well, a Kuwaiti expert said, without forecasting she expected such natural disaster to take place.
"A destructive earthquake, centered in Iran, is likely to strike, according to all scientific and historical facts that we have," Dr. Ferial Bu Rabei, an expert in earthquakes at the University of Kuwait, was quoted as saying by the Kuwaiti al-Watan daily on Thursday.
She urged the importance of giving up on all the nuclear projects in the region, even if those projects were aimed at producing electricity.
Bu Rabei expected that the quake might have a magnitude of 8 on the Richter scale and could trigger a huge tsunami in all directions that could reach as far as the Arab Gulf states.
The Kuwaiti expert sounded alarm over the presence of Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant as it might cause a huge catastrophe in the whole region.
Bu Rabei wondered whether the Arab Gulf states have taken the needed precautions to limit the risks of possible future earthquakes.
The Kuwaiti expert explained that the expected massive earthquake will hit south-east Iran at any moment and will have destructive outcomes in Iran, Kuwait and most countries overlooking the Arab Gulf.
She added that the same region was hit by one of the strongest earthquakes in the twentieth century, exactly on Nov. 28, 1945, which measured 8.1 on the Richter scale and triggered a huge tsunami that left enormous destructions and human losses. The tsunami waves reached Karachi, which was 360 kms far from the center of the quake, and Bombay, which was 1,100 kms away.
(Translated from Arabic by Abeer Tayel)