Two earthquakes hit Erbil, Nineveh and Dohuk in Iraq
Iraqi families in a street outside their homes following an earthquake in 2017. Photo: AP
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi government announced on Saturday that two new earthquakes were recorded in the governorates of Nineveh and Erbil, with no casualties or material losses reported.
The Iraqi Ministry of Transport mentioned in a statement that the Iraqi Meteorological Organization and Seismology recorded an earthquake early on Saturday in Nineveh governorate, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
The statement illustrated that the earthquake was recorded at 2:25 a.m. on Saturday, at a magnitude of 4.3 degrees on the Richter scale, 8.2 kilometers east of the Hatra district in Nineveh governorate.
The statement confirmed that citizens in Nineveh, Erbil, and Dohuk felt the tremor, and no casualties or losses were reported.
The Meteorological Organization and Seismology mentioned that another earthquake was recorded at 3:09 a.m., 22 kilometers northeast of the city center in Erbil governorate, noting that it was clearly felt by the citizens.
On Friday evening, an earthquake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale struck Iraq.
According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), the tremor occurred at 23:25 GMT (2:25 local time), 359 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, and 17 kilometers northeast of New Mosul.
The EMSC indicated that the tremor struck at a depth of 20 kilometers, at latitude 36.43 north and longitude 43.25 east.
Last Wednesday, an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale hit Nineveh governorate in northern Iraq.
These earthquakes follow a devastating earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6. The aftershocks of the earthquake reached other countries in the region, and were felt by residents in Lebanon and Iraq.
The earthquake in Turkey and Syria caused severe damage to thousands of buildings, including schools, health care facilities and other public infrastructure such as roads, airports, ports, gas stations and power networks, and hundreds of aftershocks were recorded.