Location (red cross) of this morning's quake in eastern Afghanistan and main fault systems (image: modified from USGS)

A strong magnitude 5.3 earthquake hit northeastern Afghanistan 35 km (22 mi) northeast of Jalalabad this morning at 2.57 a.m., killed at least eight people and injuring at least 9, according to preliminary information by news agencies. Significant damage was reported in the area near the epicenter.

Unfortunately, even though a magnitude of 5.3 is not extremely large, most houses and structures in Afghanistan are poorly build and earthquakes regularly cause significant damage.



The deadly June 22 magnitude 5.9 quake earlier this year killed more than 1,000 and devastated entire villages in its east.



Today's quake likely occurred along the southern reach of the Konar fault system of the Hindu Kush, which had been producing large quakes of magnitudes of 7 or more in the past century. Afghanistan's eastern part is one of Asia's most earthquake-prone regions. It is near a major tectonic plate boundary with both side-wise and compressional movement (known as transpressional), as the Indian plate moves northward relative to Eurasia at a rate of about 4 cm/yr.

This plate-boundary zone extends into eastern Afghanistan, trending southwest-ward from the Hindu Kush in northeast Afghanistan, through Kabul, and along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Deformation of the crust results in a series of major, north-northeast-trending faults causing abundant seismic activity such as today's tremor.