The quake struck at around 10 am local time and was centred 66 kilometres south of Qeshm by the Strait of Hormuz, the US Geological Survey said.
Iran's official IRNA news agency put the quake's magnitude slightly higher at 5.2 and said there were no initial reports of casualties or damage.
The quake also shook the larger port city of Bandar Abbas and was felt across the Gulf in Dubai, where residential and office towers shook for around 10 seconds but were not evacuated.
Iran stands on several seismic fault lines.
In April last year, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Iran and Pakistan, killing 40 people.
A massive quake in December 2003 struck the southern city of Bam, killing 26,000 people and destroying its ancient mud-built citadel.
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@Vectra: You are spending too much time on USGS website that's what happening.
What is happening 4 earthquakes back to back. 1st earthquake struck India 250 km from the state of Odisha in the Bay of Bengal Next day 2nd earthquake struck Myanmar Next day 3rd earthquake struck Greece Next day 4th earthquake struck Iran