Earthquake of magnitude 4.3 hits Afghanistan

Kabul [Afghanistan], February 4 (ANI): An earthquake of magnitude 4.3 jolted Afghanistan late in the night, as per the National Center for Seismology (NCS).

According to the NCS, the earthquake struck Afghanistan on Tuesday at 01:42 AM, Indian Standard Time. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometres.

"EQ of M: 4.3, On: 04/02/2025 01:42:18 IST, Lat: 36.41 N, Long: 70.95 E, Depth: 10 Km, Location: Afghanistan," the NCS wrote in a post on X.

Earlier, an earthquake of magnitude 4.1 jolted Afghanistan on Monday, as per the NCS.

Similarly, on January 30, an earthquake of magnitude 4.2 had also jolted the region.

Shallow earthquakes like this are generally more dangerous than deep earthquakes. This is because shallow earthquakes release more energy closer to the surface, causing more intense shaking and damage.

The region experiences frequent earthquakes, as another earthquake of magnitude 4 on the Richter Scale occurred in the region on January 26.

As per the NCS, Afghanistan has seen 13 earthquakes in the last 30 days.

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

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.)