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Dead Sea earthquake felt in Tel Aviv

An earthquake along the Dead Sea on Wednesday was felt as far away as Tel Aviv.

By World Israel News Staff

A 3.8-magnitude earthquake at a depth of one kilometer shook the Dead Sea region on Wednesday. People reported feeling it in Tel Aviv, the Ynet news site reports.

The earthquake’s epicenter was on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea, a popular tourist attraction and the lowest point on the earth’s surface.

The Dead Sea lies in the middle of the Syrian-African Rift, a major fault line that separates the Arabian and African Plate. It runs from the Red Sea to Turkey and is comparable to the San Andreas Fault in California.

However, Israel has not experienced a major earthquake for 92 years ago, not since July 11, 1927. The Jericho Earthquake, which measured 6.25 on the Richter scale, claimed 500 lives and 700 wounded. Its epicenter, like Wednesday’s quake, was in the Dead Sea’s northern region.

The last major earthquake to hit the Land of Israel prior to that was in 1837 (magnitude 7.0).

But Israel has been hit with numerous smaller quakes, most recently a 4.4 in May whose epicenter was in the Mediterranean.

In July 2018, following a series of earthquakes in Israel’s north, the country’s State Comptroller published a special report examining Israel’s earthquake readiness. It found Israel was not prepared.

According to one scenario in the report, a strong earthquake would kill 7,000 people, injure tens of thousands and leave 170,000 Israelis homeless.