Significant 5.1 quake hits near Khvoy, West Azerbaijan, Iran

The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) reported a magnitude 5.1 quake in Iran near Khvoy, West Azerbaijan, only 13 minutes ago. The earthquake hit early afternoon on Thursday, March 16th, 2023, at 2:47 pm local time at a moderately shallow depth of 61 km. The exact magnitude, epicenter, and depth of the quake might be revised within the next few hours or minutes as seismologists review data and refine their calculations, or as other agencies issue their report.
Our monitoring service identified a second report from the citizen-seismograph network of RaspberryShake which listed the quake at magnitude 5.1 as well.
Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should not have caused any significant damage, but was probably felt by many people as light vibration in the area of the epicenter.
Weak shaking might have been felt in Khvoy (pop. 175,400) located 27 km from the epicenter, Salmas (pop. 81,600) 45 km away, Marand (pop. 124,200) 50 km away, Qarah Ẕīā'od Dīn (pop. 31,900) 56 km away, Nakhichivan (pop. 64,800) 91 km away, Urmia (pop. 577,300) 96 km away, Urmia (pop. 577,300) 96 km away, and Tabriz (pop. 1,424,600) 102 km away.

VolcanoDiscovery will automatically update magnitude and depth if these change and follow up if other significant news about the quake become available. If you're in the area, please send us your experience through our reporting mechanism, either online or via our mobile app. This will help us provide more first-hand updates to anyone around the globe who wants to know more about this quake.

Earthquake data:
Date & time: Mar 16, 2023 3:47 pm (GMT +4) local time (16 Mar 2023 11:47 GMT)
Magnitude: 5.1
Depth: 61.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 38.41°N / 45.2°E (West Azerbaijan, Iran)
Primary data source: GFZ