On Tuesday, a massive earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck the Hindu Kush area in Afghanistan. The quake was felt across Delhi, Noida, and surrounding areas of the national capital, sending people rushing out of their buildings after feeling strong tremors. Despite the intensity of the earthquake, no reports of loss or destruction have been reported so far.
According to J L Gautam, head of office and Scientist at National Center for Seismology, the Indo-Australian plate is colliding with the Eurasian plate, and this release happened in that region. The HKH region is known to be very active seismologically, and the reason why people in northwest India and Delhi felt the tremors for a relatively longer time is because of the depth. The fault’s depth is over 150 km, so primary waves were felt first, followed by secondary waves.
The epicenter of the earthquake is believed to be 90 km from Kalafgan in Afghanistan. The earthquake measuring 6.8 magnitude hit countries including Turkmenistan, India, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, China, Afghanistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Although aftershocks are likely to occur, they cannot be forecasted.
Residents in the affected areas were checking their phones constantly for any updates on the situation. “Many of the residents of our building came to the common ground area. People were checking their phones constantly for any updates,” said a local resident of Noida.
Overall, while the earthquake caused significant tremors across several countries, no major damage or casualties have been reported so far.
