Earthquake of magnitude 4.3 hits Afghanistan

Badakhshan [Afghanistan], February 18 (ANI): An earthquake of magnitude 4.3 on the Richter Scale jolted Afghanistan in the early hours of Tuesday.

As per the National Centre for Seismology (NCS), the earthquake occurred at a depth of 180 kilometres and was recorded at Latitude 36.52 N, Longitude 71.10 E.

The earthquake took place at 03:37 AM Indian Standard Time (IST).

The earthquake which struck on Tuesday was recorded in the Badakhshan region of Afghanistan a mountainous region prone to natural calamities.

In the last thirty days, 17 earthquakes have taken place in Afghanistan.

As per the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), Afghanistan remains highly vulnerable to natural disasters, including seasonal flooding, landslides and earthquakes.

These frequent earthquakes in Afghanistan cause damage to vulnerable communities, which are already grappling with decades of conflict and under-development and have left them with little resilience to cope with multiple simultaneous shocks, UNOCHA noted.

Afghanistan has a history of powerful earthquakes, with the Hindu Kush Mountain range being a geologically active area where quakes occur every year, as per the Red Cross.

Afghanistan sits on numerous fault lines between the Indian and the Eurasian tectonic plates, with a fault line also running directly through Herat. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)