Mw 7.3 Iran-Iraq Border Region

On 12 November 2017 a major earthquake occurred in the Iran-Iraq Border Region at a depth of 24 km. The seismic event occurred at 18:18:17 UTC and had an estimated moment magnitude (Mw) 7.3.

Two days earlier the highly critical planetary alignment Venus-Mercury-Neptune had occurred, which is known to precede some major to great earthquakes. The earthquake occurred with the first significant lunar peak following the alignment. An additional strong earthquake occurred a day later in Costa Rica.

Venus-Mercury-Neptune     2017-11-10,  8:17:05  343°40'45"
Earth-Venus-Jupiter       2017-11-13,  8:10:06  217°06'11"

Moon-Earth-Neptune        2017-11-12, 12:49:16  341°14'53"
          

SSGI depiction of planetary (PG) and lunar (LG) geometry