LONDON, Dec 27: Here is a short chronology of some of the major earthquakes in Iran in the last three decades.

April 10, 1972 - An earthquake with a radius of more than 400kms struck southern Iran around Ghir Karzin. 5,374 people were killed. The quake measured 7.1 on the Richter scale.

March 22, 1977 - 167 people were killed when an earthquake struck the southeastern coastal region around the town of Bandar Abbas. (Magnitude 7.0).

April 6-7, 1977 - 352 people were killed when an earthquake struck Isfahan province. (Magnitude 6.5).

Dec 21, 1977 - 521 die in Zarand, Kerman province.

Sept 16, 1978 - 15,000 people killed by an earthquake measuring between 7.5 and 7.9. It levelled the town of Tabas and many other villages.

Jan 16, 1979 - 200 killed in Khorasan province.

June 11, 1981 - 1,027 killed in Golbaf, 800kms southeast of Tehran.

June 21, 1990 - 35,000 died and 100,000 were injured in the worst recorded disaster in Iran. The quake, which registered 7.7, devastated the Caspian regions of Gilan and Zanjan. Some 500,000 were made homeless.

Feb 28, 1997 - 1,000 die in northwestern Iran.

May 10, 1997 - A quake measuring 7.1 killed 1,560 people in rural areas of eastern Iran, near the Afghan border. —Reuters