Newsroom24x7 Network

Kabul, Afghanistan: A magnitude 5.9 earthquake, the deadliest in Afghanistan in 20 years, hit remote and inaccessible villages about 45 km from the southwest city of Khōst, close to the Pakistan border, on the midnight of June 21 and 22. The death toll in this earthquake is over 1000 and the casualty figure is said to rise as many are still trapped in debris or buried under soil.

As the terrain is barely motorable and more due to heavy rain and landslides, it is difficult to launch a full-fledged relief operation. Due to sanctions imposed on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, international relief cannot be mustered on a war footing.

Seismic instruments indicate the earthquake originated at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 kilometers). According to US Geological Survey, the earthquake struck at a shallow depth in a region with buildings extremely vulnerable to earthquake shaking. The event occurred due to strike-slip faulting in the plate boundary zone between the Eurasia and India plates, along the western margin of the Tibetan plateau. The left-lateral, strike-slip Chaman fault is the fastest moving fault in the region and has caused large and destructive earthquakes in the past. Further reference