A devastating earthquake struck the Hindu Kush region of north-east Afghanistan just after lunchtime on October 26, rocking communities as far away as Tajikistan, Pakistan and even India.
The strong quake, estimated at magnitude 7.5 by the US Geological Survey (USGS), had its origins more than 200km deep beneath Earth’s surface, and was felt as strong shaking across a very wide area. Casualties have been reported from across the region, with widespread landslips causing potential further damage to infrastructure.
So far it has been reported that 150 people have died, but this number is likely to rise.
The quake is the second large shake to hit the Alpine-Himalayan earthquake belt this year, following the one that devastated Nepal in April. A region stretching from the Mediterranean through Anatolia, Iran and Central Asia into the mountains of South-East Asia, the Alpine-Himalayan belt is the home of around a fifth of the world’s largest earthquakes.
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Image:Topography of Hindu Kush
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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Earthquake rocks Afghanistan and Pakistan – an area prone to magnitude 7 quakes
28 October 2015
Professor Simon Redfern of Cambridge University's Department of Earth Sciences discusses the devastating earthquake that struck Afghanistan on October 26 and the geological triggers that caused it.