Afghanistan has trembled again. An earthquake of magnitude 6.3 shook the north of the country early this Monday, hitting the population while they slept and once again highlighting its fragility in the face of natural disasters.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake was recorded at 1:00 a.m. local time (9:30 p.m. Spanish peninsular time on Sunday), with an epicenter 22 kilometers from the city of Khulm, in the province of Balkh, and at a depth of 28 kilometers. The shaking was strongly felt in Kabul and several northern and northeastern provinces, including Samangan, Kunduz, Takhar and Bamiyan.
The provisional balance of the Taliban authorities raises the dead to eight and more than 185 injured, the majority in the province of Balkh, where six fatalities were recorded and more than 70 injured in the district of Khulm. In Aybak, the provincial capital of Samangan, one person died and more than a hundred injured were reported, while another victim and 15 injured were reported in the Hazrat Sultan district, according to the head of Public Health, Qari Lutfullah Habibi.
The Government’s deputy press secretary, Hamdullah Fitrat, assured that emergency teams have been activated and the contact numbers of the military forces have been released to assist those affected, while rescuers assess the damage in rural areas that are still incommunicado.
A country where earthquakes are frequent
Earthquakes are not a rarity in Afghanistan. The country, surrounded by steep mountains, suffers an average of 560 deaths annually from this type of phenomenon, which causes damage estimated at 80 million dollars each year, according to data compiled by Reuters.
Since 1990, more than 350 earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 5.0 have been recorded, making the territory one of the most seismically active in Asia. The last major series of earthquakes, in September, left more than 2,200 dead and 3,600 injured, in addition to entire towns devastated in the west of the country.
Why Afghanistan trembles
The explanation is underground. Afghanistan sits on one of the most active geological borders on the planet: the collision zone between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, also influenced by the Arabian plate to the south.
The northward movement of the Indian plate and its constant push against the Eurasian plate generate intense pressure that is released in the form of earthquakes. That same dynamic is what gave rise to the Himalayan mountain range, which rises a few millimeters every year due to the force of the collision.
The eastern and northeastern regions, especially those near Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan, are the most vulnerable. They include Kabul, where studies estimate an average annual damage from earthquakes of 17 million dollars.
A fragility that multiplies the damage
Beyond its geology, Afghanistan’s big problem is the weakness of its infrastructure. Much of the rural housing is built with adobe and precarious materials, incapable of resisting ground vibrations.
Earthquakes in mountainous areas can also cause landslides that increase the number of victims and make rescue efforts difficult.
Experts cited by Reuters recommend that the country promote new anti-seismic construction standards, reinforce existing buildings and improve early warning systems. They also suggest mapping active faults using remote sensing technologies, to relocate the most exposed communities.
A story of devastation
Afghanistan has recorded around a hundred destructive earthquakes since 1900.
Among the deadliest are the one in 1998, with more than 7,000 deaths in two large earthquakes; that of 2015, of magnitude 7.5, which caused almost 400 victims between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India; and that of 2022, which killed 1,000 people.
In 2023, a succession of earthquakes in the west of the country left more than 1,000 dead and entire towns destroyed.
This Monday’s new earthquake reminds us again: Afghanistan continues to be, geologically, one of the most prone places on the planet to suffer seismic catastrophes.
