Scientists Worry Mideast Is Threatened By Powerful Future Earthquake Scientists Worry Mideast Is Threatened By Powerful Future Earthquake Comments Off on Scientists Worry Mideast Is Threatened By Powerful Future Earthquake Israelis can add natural disasters to their current worries about COVID-19 and threats from Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. Now, Israeli researchers are warning a devastating earthquake measuring at least 6.5 on the Richter scale is expected to hit the region in the coming years. The dire prediction comes from drilling in the Dead Sea to analyze some 220,000 years of underwater geology. According to the researchers’ analysis, a strong earthquake occurs every 130 to 150 years, although there have also been lulls of a few decades between them.