3 Richter scale earthquake hits Kirkuk

(IraqiNews.com) The Meteorological & Seismic Monitoring Department in the Ministry of Transport announced Saturday, that Kirkuk has witnessed a 3 Richter scale magnitude earthquake that hit east of the governorate.

Director of the Foreign Centers in the department, Abdul Karim Abdullah Taqi said in an interview or IraqiNews.com “The observatories belonging to the Meteorological & Seismic Monitoring Department registered this morning an earthquake amounted to 3 on the Richter scale east of Kirkuk.”

“The earthquake comes within the seismic activity on the border between Iraq and the neighboring countries like Iran and Turkey,” Taqi stated.

He added that the earthquake did not result in any human causalities, pointing out that, “Iraq is located on the Arabic tectonic plate border which is moving toward the north-east, and its collision with the Iranian and Turkish plate makes the northern and north-eastern regions more vulnerable to earthquakes.”