Afghanistan not only prone to hazardous terrorists attacks, but also to the greater risks of earthquakes too!
More than 7000 people were killed in the last 10 years in Afghanistan, which includes the Nahrin’s earthquake, which happened in the year 1998 with an estimated loss of 4000 people. Afghanistan has huge risks of earthquakes, due to the ongoing geological processes that happen quite near to the highly populated areas. Large earthquakes trigger landslides in the mountainous regions, further its geographical proximity to the southward projecting Eurasian tectonic plates, besides surrounded by the active plates in the east, south and west boundaries add up to the series of faults, deformation, and earthquakes. Many research results show that the seismic hazards are much higher in the north-eastern region of Afghanistan, then in the western half of the country.
In the year 1998, a major earthquake did affect Afghanistan with a magnitude of about 6.1 on the Richer scale, resulting in the life loss of around 3000 people. The building practices are inadequate in the country, thus even the small earthquakes have led to large fatalities. The northeastern part of Afghanistan does fall under the category of the rare continental regions on earth, which faces the destructive earthquakes that in turn occur at a depth of 200 km, or more. The surface rupture in Afghanistan also act as a potential source of earthquakes, besides its geological location to the seismic zones. The central part of the country is seismically inactive, whereas, the heavy population in the north and east regions of the country bear a greater seismic significance.
