Earthquake is part of the Earth’s natural behavior, occurring more than 150,000 times a year, but only a small number of them are associated with life and financial dangers and losses. Humanity has long been struggling with this phenomenon and has been horrified by it. There have been many human settlements destroyed by the earthquake and their inhabitants immediately buried and annihilated under the debris. Unlike other natural hazards, earthquakes take place on a vast territory and bring about widespread damage and destruction. The sudden occurrence of earthquake and its unpredictability and the inability of man to control this phenomenon are also among the causes of human panic even in our time.
Today, humans have been able to partly protect themselves from earthquake hazards by the construction of earthquake-resistant buildings. Although earthquakes might occur on any point of the earth, but the research suggests that it is more likely in the vicinity of active faults and therefore the severity and damage of earthquake is also more serious in these areas, because the concentration of energy inside the earth causes the flaws to move and take on a new state resulting in an earthquake.
Ray is one of the ancient cities of Iran which, due to its proximity to active faults, has great potential for earthquake occurrence and has therefore suffered many devastating earthquakes causing a lot of damage and casualties throughout the course of history. The present paper first reviews the history of Ray’s earthquakes and then examines the probabilities of earthquake occurrence according to the location of faults.