Earthquake or secret underground nuclear test as preparation for revenge on Israel?

Days after the news of the earthquake in Iran's Semnan province was released, speculation continues on social media that the tremors were caused by Tehran's first nuclear test.

Last Saturday at 10:45 PM, the seismological center of the University of Tehran announced that a magnitude 4.4 earthquake hit the city of Aradan in Iran's Semnan province.

The tremors were also felt in parts of eastern Tehran.

The epicenter of the earthquake, which occurred 12 kilometers underground, was recorded at 35.42° N and 52.78° E. A few hours after the news broke, social media users began to speculate that the Tehran regime had attempted its first underground nuclear test, possibly as a deterrent against Israeli attacks on its territory, Euronews reports.

These speculations followed as officials of the Islamic Republic and commanders of the Revolutionary Guard threaten that Tehran, if economic, political, and military pressures on the country intensify, will change its military defense doctrine.

A change would require an amendment to the Iranian leader's fatwa on the illegality of nuclear weapons.

Despite this, the NorNews website, which unofficially serves as the main information hub for the National Security Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran, dismissed the nuclear speculations as "rumors".

It reiterated that nuclear testing is contrary to Iran's nuclear and defense doctrine. However, the idea that Iran would never conduct such a test without announcing a policy change does not necessarily "hold water".

In 2019, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, based in Washington, published a report stating that Iran had begun a program to build underground nuclear test sites, known as Field Project.

The Foundation was sanctioned by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for five years for "producing and disseminating lies, advising, lobbying, and conducting a negative propaganda campaign against the Islamic Republic with the aim of playing a role in imposing and intensifying economic sanctions".

According to the 2019 report, its researchers "identified a probable location (in the area southeast of Semnan) where underground non-nuclear explosive tests were conducted in 2003 as part of the development of seismic methods for measuring the yield of underground nuclear explosions."

This increases the likelihood that the earthquake reported in Semnan could be linked to Tehran's first nuclear test.

Although Iran has previously acknowledged the existence of the "Imam Khomeini" space center and a missile base southeast of Semnan, the site is more than 100 kilometers away from the earthquake's epicenter.

However, some social media users continue to speculate that Iran may have an undeclared underground nuclear facility in Semnan province, and prefers to use it as a testing ground rather than conducting them at a well-known facility like Natanz.

Tehran has not disclosed its nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency. At the same time, Iran is an earthquake-prone country, and such tremors are not uncommon or strange.