Rumors arose over this past weekend that a seismic event in central Iran might have actually been a nuclear test. According to the Indian news channel NDTV, a 4.6-magnitude earthquake was felt in central Iran at about 10 PM local time on Oct. 5 with its epicenter in Aradan, about 120 km southeast of Tehran, at a depth of about 10 km. Just minutes after the initial quake, a second, weaker tremor was reported in Israel around midnight, further fueling concerns and theories about the nature of these seismic events, coming as it did amidst rising tensions between Iran and Israel.
NDTV cites social media postings speculating that Iran had gone nuclear. “However, the earthquake’s shallow depth and magnitude do not definitively indicate a nuclear test—as containing an underground explosion without surface disruption is complex,” NDTV says.
