Surface effects of the December 26th,2003 Bam earthquake along the Bam fault in southeastern Iran

During the December 26th, 2006 Bam earthquake, continuous ruptures with a consistent rightlateral strike-slip of a few centimeters occurred north of Bam. A 3km long strand of ruptures coincides exactly with the trace of the geologic Bam fault. These ruptures were possibly caused by the tectonic slip on the source fault of the 2006 earthquake. The Bam scarp south of the Zehedan highway might have grown during the earthquake. The extension of the area around the scarp indicated by the scarp-parallel fissures may represent the coseismic stretch of the surface. South of the Bam scarp, there was no systematic surface effect. The absence of significant tectonic offset at the surface is concordant with the intermediate magnitude of Mw 6.6 Only a small and deep portion of the Bam fault, or another adjacent blind fault plane was ruptured in 2006. The geologic evidence of the over 50km long Bam fault suggests a large, probably M 7.5 or larger, event in the future, however, there is no historic and geologic data to quantify the risks