Contribution of archaeological data to studies of earthquake history in the Iranian Plateau

We use archaeological evidence to identify ancient earthquakes in the vicin ity of large 20th century events in the Iranian Plateau. Two Large earthqua kes on the Zagros Main Recent Fault were preceded by historical earthquakes in AD 1008 and AD 1107 and by earthquakes in the intervals AD 224-459 and 1650-1600 BC. giving return times of 1800-2100. 500-800, and 850-950 years. The AD 1962 (M-s 7.2) Bo'in Zahra earthquake on the Ipak fault in north-ce ntral Iran was preceded by an earthquake in 2000-1500 BC recorded at the Sa gzabad mound. a return time of 3500-4000 years if there are no missing even ts. The AD 1990 (M-s 7.3) Rudbar-Tarom earthquake in the western Alborz Mou ntains was preceded by an earthquake in 1000-800 BC recorded at the Marlik mound, a return rime of 2800-3000 years. The AD 1948 (M-s 7.2) Kopeh Dagh e arthquake that destroyed Ashkabad. capital of Turkmenistan, was preceded by an earthquake in 10 BC-AD 10 recorded at Mithradatkert (Nesa) mound and by an earthquake in 2000 BC recorded at Ak Tapeh mound. Assuming no missing e arthquakes, this region has an earthquake return time of about 2000 years. In Khorasan province, which was struck by a sequence of large earthquakes f rom AD 1936 to 1997, a mosque at Qa'en was: destroyed in the mid-11th centu ry AD, probably the historical earthquake of AD1066. In the absence of pala eoseismic investigations, archaeology offers the promise of recording earth quakes through more than one seismic cycle in different regions of Iran. (C ) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.