Table of Contents
Afghanistan Earthquake: On Tuesday evening, a strong quake hit a remote mountainous area in northeastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan, causing 19 fatalities and over 200 injuries.
The 6.5-magnitude quake which occurred around 10:17 pm with its epicentre 90 km from Kalafgan, caused widespread damage to buildings, triggered landslides, and forced people to flee into the streets. The main area affected in the Afghanistan area was Yamgan district but the quake was felt as far away as India, and phone lines have reportedly been affected in some areas.
The areas hit by the quake are rugged and remote, making it difficult for rescue and relief teams to reach them quickly. Many of the affected people had been celebrating the Persian New Year when the quake struck. Emergency workers in Pakistan have reported that the damage so far is less severe than they had feared. Check Video Here
In Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, nine people were confirmed dead, while three others were killed in Afghanistan, including a child. In the Laghman province near the border with Pakistan, a 13-year-old girl was among those killed. People in the affected regions are braving near-freezing temperatures to sleep outside, fearing aftershocks.
A 90m wall around a police station also reportedly collapsed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but there were no casualties.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has ordered disaster agencies to take emergency measures to help those affected by the quake. The quake’s epicentre was in a region where earthquakes are more likely to occur because it lies at the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
The affected countries include India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan, with tremors felt across a 1,000-km area, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.
This earthquake comes less than a year after a 5.9-magnitude quake struck Afghanistan’s Paktika province, killing over 1,000 people in June 2022.
Long Tremors felt in Delhi NCR
According to experts, the reason for the long duration of the tremors experienced by people in Northern India is the depth of the epicentre of the earthquake which was over 150 km. Also Check: Strong Tremors in Delhi-NCR, After an Earthquake of 6.3 Magnitude hit Nepal
Earthquake Lights noticed
Some people have also reported seeing Earthquake lights in the NCR region after the Afghanistan earthquake last evening.
What are Earthquake Lights?
The rare phenomenon is not very well understood and is under research but appears as a glowing light in the sky during an earthquake. The lights can appear as a ball or a sheet that changes colours from red, blue, green, violet etc. The lights are thought to be caused by an ionic discharge that builds up in rocks during an earthquake, which when reaches the surface and then the atmosphere, is converted to plasma that creates the lights.
2.7 Magnitude Earthquake in West Delhi
Just after the 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Afghanistan last evening, a mild earthquake occurred with its epicentre in West Delhi according to the National Centre for Seismology at around 4.42 p.m. this afternoon.
Dutch Researcher Frank Hoogerbeets’ earthquake predictions are coming true
Interestingly, the 6.8 magnitude earthquake was predicted by Dutch researcher Frank Hoogerbeets, who had also correctly predicted the major earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria a few days earlier. In a video posted on the YouTube page of SSGEOS, the Netherlands-based research institute for which Frank is working, he had anticipated “some seismic increase, most likely around the 22nd” after noticing primarily lunar peaks followed by planetary conjunction after the New Moon on March 21. His forecast was mostly true, leaving people all over the world wondering how the geologist gets it right every time.
