Earthquake

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake has shaken northern Afghanistan, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 500, a health official says, adding that the numbers could increase.

The quake’s epicentre on Monday was located 22km (14 miles) west-southwest of the town of Khulm, and it struck at 12:59am (20:29 GMT on Sunday) at a depth of 28km (17 miles), the United States Geological Survey said.

Sharafat Zaman, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health, said 534 injured people and 20 bodies had been brought to hospitals in Balkh and Samangan provinces. Rescuers were on the scene and the figures were changing, he added.

In the nearby province of Badakhshan, the quake damaged or destroyed 800 houses in one village in the Shahr-e-Bozorg district, said Ihsanullah Kamgar, spokesperson for the provincial police headquarters.

However, due to a lack of internet service in the remote area, there were still no accurate casualty figures, he added.

Yousaf Hammad, a spokesperson for the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority, said most of the injured suffered minor wounds and were discharged after treatment.

In the Afghan capital, Kabul, the Ministry of Defence announced that rescue and emergency teams had reached the quake-affected areas in Balkh and Samangan, which suffered the most damage, and were transporting the injured and assisting others.

The Defence Ministry said a rockslide briefly blocked a main mountain highway linking Kabul with Mazar-i-Sharif but the road was later reopened. It said some people who had been injured and trapped along the highway were transported to hospital.

Video shows damage to Afghanistan’s shrine of Mazar-i-Sharif, also known as The Blue Mosque, after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. Officials in the area say at least seven people have been killed and 150 injured.

At least eight people have died after an earthquake struck northern Afghanistan, say local authorities, with the toll expected to rise as rescue efforts continue.

Some 180 people have also been left injured, Samin Joyenda, a health department spokesman of a nearby province told the BBC.

The earthquake struck Mazar-e-Sharif, which is home to around 500,000 people, in the early hours of Monday, at around 01:00 local time (20:30 GMT).

It had a magnitude of 6.3 and a depth of 28km (17mi, according to the US Geological Survey, and was marked at an orange alert level, which indicates “significant casualties” are likely.

Haji Zaid, a Taliban spokesman in Balkh province – of which Mazar-e Sharif is the capital – wrote earlier on X that “many people are injured” in the Sholgara district, just south of Mazar-e- Sharif.

He said they had received “reports of minor injuries and superficial damages from all districts of the province”.

“Most of the injuries were caused by people falling from tall buildings,” he wrote.

Mazar-e Sharif is home to more than 500,000 people. Many of the city’s residents rushed to the streets when the quake struck, as they feared their houses would collapse, AFP reported.

The Taliban spokesman in Balkh also posted a video on X appearing to show debris strewn across the ground at the Blue Mosque, a local landmark in Mazar-e-Sharif.

The religious complex is believed to house the tomb of the first Shia Imam – a religious leader believed to hold divine knowledge. It’s now a site where pilgrims gather to pray and celebrate religious events.

Khalid Zadran, a Taliban spokesman for the police in Kabul, wrote on X that police teams were “closely monitoring the situation”.

Numerous fatalities were also reported in Samangan, a mountainous province near Mazar-e-Sharif, according to its spokesman.

The quake on Monday comes after a 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan’s mountainous eastern region in late August, killing more than 1,000 people.

That earthquake was especially deadly as the rural houses in the region were typically made of mud and timber. Residents were trapped when their houses collapsed during the quake.

Afghanistan is very prone to earthquakes because of its location on top of a number of fault lines where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.

A 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit western Turkiye Monday night, causing at least three buildings to collapse. Officials have reported no casualties so far. They said the quake was centred in Balikesir province and felt as far away as Izmir and Istanbul.

A MASSIVE earthquake of magnitude 7.4 has rocked a southern island of the Philippines.

Thousands of people have been told to evacuate after authorities warned of a “destructive tsunami” in the aftermath of the quake.

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The tsunami threat has now passed, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre. 

One official in Manay said there were initial reports of damage to homes, buildings and bridges.

A video of the quake from the Philippine city of Davao showed office workers holding on to desks, with the creaking noises of structures.

Another showed toppled cabinets and evacuated workers gathering outside.

The governor of Davao Oriental province confirmed that several buildings have been damaged.

Ferdinand Marcos, the Philippines’ president, said his government was working “round the clock” to help with the situation.

He said: “We are now assessing the situation on the ground and ensuring that everyone is safe.

“Search, rescue, and relief operations are already being prepared and will be deployed as soon as it is safe to do so.”

The quake was among the strongest in recent years to hit the Philippines, which sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and experiences more than 800 quakes each year.

The US Tsunami Warning System issued a tsunami threat immediately after the quake, saying hazardous waves were possible for coasts within 186 miles of the earthquake’s epicentre.

The earthquake came two weeks after the Philippines experienced its deadliest quake in more than a decade, with 74 people killed on the island of Cebu. That was a magnitude of 6.9 and also struck offshore.

A tsunami warning was also issued in Indonesia for its northern Sulawesi and Papua regions.

Authorities warn that some coasts in Indonesia and the Pacific island nation of Palau could see waves of up to 1 metre.

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Oct. 9 (UPI) — A strong 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the southeastern coast of the Philippines on Friday morning, according to seismologists. The extent of potential damage was not immediately clear.

The U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center said a tsunami is not expected for the western U.S. coast.

However, it warned of waves of up to nearly 10 feet for parts of the Philippines.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, known as Phivolcs, is warning of waves of more than a meter, or 3.2 feet, to affect enclosed bays and straits.

Residents along coastal areas in eight provinces are “STRONGLY ADVISED TO IMMEDIATELY EVACUATE to higher grounds or move farther inland,” it said.

The quake struck at 9:43 a.m. PHT Friday about 27 miles off the coast of Manay in the southeastern province of Davao Oriental, according to a statement from Phivolcs, which said damage was expected. It had initially rated it a magnitude-7.6 earthquake.

The agency said it struck at a depth of 12 miles.

The U.S. Geological Survey rated the quake at magnitude 7.4 and the depth 36 miles.

Aftershocks were expected, with 11 having struck within an hour of the original temblor, the strongest being a 5.2 magnitude temblor.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement that the situation on the ground is being assessed, and that federal agencies, including the military, have been deployed to conduct evacuations in coastal areas and activate emergency communication lines.

“Search, rescue and relief operations are already being prepared and will be deployed as soon as it is safe to do so,” he said in a statement.

“We are working round the clock to ensure that help reaches everyone who needs it.”

The provincial government of Davao Oriental has ordered the suspension of all public and private classes and work in public and private offices.

The city government of Davao similarly canceled all classes at both private and public schools and suspended all government work until further notice except for services in security, health, social services and disaster and emergency response due to the temblor. Private offices are encouraged to follow suit.

The earthquake struck two weeks after more than 70 people were killed in a 6.9-magnitude earthquake that hit Cebu Province late last month.

Oct. 3 (UPI) — Typhoon Matmo struck northern Philippines on Friday, three days after a 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit the central part of the Asian nation hundreds of miles away and weeks after two other cyclones hit the country.

Matmo, which is locally named Paolo, had maximum sustained winds of 81 mph with the eye at San Guillermo in Isabela Province, the national weather agency Pagasa said.

Pagasa warned of “lightly stronger/enhanced in coastal and upland/mountainous areas exposed to winds. Winds are less strong in areas sheltered from the prevailing wind direction.” Also, rough seas are forecast.

More than 8 inches of rain are predicted on Isabela, Aurora and Quirino provinces.

Because of the storm, government agencies and schools were closed in the northern provinces’ main Luzon island, GMA News reported. Also, more than a dozen domestic flights were canceled, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.

After crossing Luzon, Matmo is forecast to re-emerge into the South China Sea and will strengthen because of warm ocean waters and weak cross-winds, according to the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

A second landfall is expected in southern China’s Leizhu Province, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

Caritas Philippines is providing relief to victims of Matmo and the earthquake.

“We are constantly faced with various risks and disasters, but it is through fraternal cooperation and unity among our dioceses that we find strength,” Jeanie, the humanitarian head of the organization, said. Together, we continue our humanitarian mission — to save lives, reduce suffering, and uphold the dignity of every human person.”

Caritas noted in Masbate and Romblon, homes, schools, parish buildings and infrastructure were badly damaged. Electricity, water supply and telecoms remain down in many areas with slow road access.

“Displaced families are facing increasing challenges as daily life becomes more difficult,” the nonprofit said. “Across affected areas, people are living in makeshift conditions, unable to return safely to their homes, and are struggling with disrupted livelihoods and a lack of basic hygiene. The uncertainty of recovery continues to weigh heavily on communities.”

The Philippines has been struck by 16 cyclones this year.

Typhoon Bualoi hit the Philippines on Sept. 25. Bualoi caused at least 37 deaths and displaced thousands in the Philippines before hitting Vietnam, where 49 people died.

Three days earlier, Super Typhoon Ragasa, which at one time was the world’s strongest tropical cyclone of the year, struck the Philippines before landfall in southern China.

The Philippines are struck by 20 cyclones each year, Bloomberg News reported. In 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,000 people in the Philippines.

The earthquake affected a different part of the nation where more than 80,000 families affected out of about 366,000 people. Some families are “sleeping outside in unsafe conditions,” Caritas said.

“I still couldn’t process what has happened to us,” Arguel Estalicas told the BBC outside her home in Medellin, near the quake’s epicenter, where she slept with her family. “I am overwhelmed with the things we experienced in the last two days.”

Search and rescue are continuing.

Analysts have criticized officials for poor disaster management, though the geographical location makes it vulnerable to extreme natural hazards.

“We are in the Pacific Ring of Fire, and we’re exposed to earthquake hazards,” Mahar Lagmay, a geologist from the University of the Philippines and the executive director of Project NOAH, a disaster risk reduction, told the South China Morning Post. “That’s something we should take advantage of … the earthquake per se does not kill.”

He added: “We should be looking at all of the hazards together … we should prepare and anticipate for the worst-case events, including climate change scenarios that are bigger than what we have experienced.”

He advocates creating maps documenting disasters.

“Our ancestors and we have been surviving in this area for quite some time,” Ven Paolo Valenzuela, a research fellow at Singapore Management University’s College of Integrative Studies who is an expert in climate change, told the the South China Morning Post. “These are not new risks.”

The United Nations estimates every $1 invested in disaster prevention would lead to $7 to $8 saved in disaster response. Valenzuela asked if the Philippines has “been investing in that dollar. And once a disaster strikes, how sure are we that the $8 is actually going towards proper response and building back better?”

There has been an ongoing flood-control scandal of allegations of corruption, ghost projects and substandard infrastructure.

Earthquake sends people running into the streets, damages buildings after hitting off Cebu island.

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake has struck off the coast of the central Philippines, sending people running into the streets and knocking power out in some areas.

The quake struck at sea on Tuesday off the northern tip of Cebu island and near Bogo, a city of more than 90,000 people, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said, adding that it expected both damage and aftershocks.

The institute urged residents in the provinces of Cebu, Leyte and Biliran to stay away from the coast due to a “minor sea level disturbance” and told them to “be on alert for unusual waves”.

However, there was no tsunami threat after the tremor, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

“We are still assessing the damage,” Pamela Baricuatro, the governor of Cebu, said in a video posted on social media.

“But it could be worse than we think,” said Baricuatro, adding that she has been in touch with the president’s office and is asking for aid.

No casualties were immediately reported by the Philippine authorities.

The Cebu provincial government said a commercial building and a school in Bantayan had collapsed, however, while a number of village roads had also sustained damage.

“There could be people trapped beneath collapsed buildings,” provincial rescue official Wilson Ramos told the AFP news agency, adding that he didn’t know how many people are missing.

The US Geological Service also recorded four earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 or higher in the area following the first tremor.

‘Shock and panic’

Cebu firefighter Joey Leeguid told AFP from the town of San Fernando that he felt the quake at his fire station.

“We saw our locker moving from left to right. We felt slightly dizzy for a while, but we are all fine now,” Leeguid said.

Martham Pacilan, a 25-year-old resident of the resort town of Bantayan near the epicentre, said he was at the town square near a church when the quake struck.

“I heard a loud booming noise from the direction of the church. Then I saw rocks falling from the structure. Luckily, no one got hurt,” he told AFP.

“I was in shock and in panic at the same time, but my body couldn’t move. I was just there waiting for the shaking to stop.”

The Archdiocesan Shrine of Santa Rosa de Lima, a church in Daanbantayan, a town in Cebu province, said the structure had partially collapsed. Power also went out in Daanbantayan.

The Philippines experiences near-daily earthquakes, and a powerful magnitude 7 quake in July 2022 killed at least five people and injured 60 others.

In December 2023, another large earthquake shook the southern Philippines, killing at least one person and forcing thousands to evacuate.

Sept. 22 (UPI) — A magnitude 4.3 earthquake hit Berkeley, Calif., early Monday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The quake, which struck at 2:56 a.m. PDT, initially had a magnitude of 4.6, and its epicenter was just a few blocks from the University of California, Berkeley campus. It’s depth was about 4.8 miles.

More than 21,000 people reported having felt it on the USGS site within the first hour. Berkeley and Oakland felt it the strongest, and San Francisco and Vallejo felt it slightly less. Reports from people in Salinas and Stockton said residents felt it there, too.

So far, there are no reports of injuries or damage.

USGS Seismologist Sarah Minson said this is what they consider a small earthquake even though it woke people up all over the Bay Area.

“Shaking is variable and it depends a lot on your location, what kind of building you’re in, what kind of land you’re standing on,” Minson told ABC7 News. “However, this being such a small magnitude earthquake, shaking from it is going to be pretty low everywhere, certainly enough to be impactful for people, for them to feel it, for it to be upsetting, potentially even to knock over things very close to the epicenter. But in general, we wouldn’t expect to see, for example, structural damage from an earthquake this small.”

The epicenter was near the Hayward Fault, which runs along the eastern side of the Berkeley campus and bisects its football stadium.

“UC Berkeley is the only major university in the world that has a dangerous earthquake fault running through its campus,” wrote Horst Rademacher, a researcher at the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory in his 2017 walking tour of the Hayward Fault on the campus.

Noorgal, Kunar, Afghanistan – Four months ago, Nawab Din returned to his home village of Wadir, high in the mountains of Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province, after eight years as a refugee in Pakistan.

Today, he lives in a tent on his own farmland. His house was destroyed nearly three weeks ago by the earthquake that has shattered the lives of thousands of others in this region.

“We are living in tent camps now,” the 55-year-old farmer said, speaking at his cousin’s shop in the nearby village of Noorgal. “Our houses were old, and none were left standing … They were all destroyed by big boulders falling from the mountain during the earthquake.”

Din’s struggle captures the double disaster facing a huge number of Afghans. He is among more than four million people who have returned from Iran and Pakistan since September 2023, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The August 31 earthquake killed about 2,200 people and destroyed more than 5,000 homes, compounding a widespread economic crisis.

“We lost everything we have worked for in Pakistan, and now we lost everything here,” Din adds.

Until four months ago, he had been living in Daska, a city in Pakistan’s Sialkot District, for eight years after fleeing his village in Afghanistan when ISIL (ISIS) fighters told him to join them or leave.

“I refused to join ISIL and I was forced to migrate to Pakistan,” he explains.

His exile ended abruptly this year as the Pakistani government continues its nationwide crackdown on undocumented foreign nationals.

He describes how Pakistani police raided his house, taking him and his family to a camp to be processed for deportation. “I returned from Pakistan as we were told our time there was finished and we had to leave,” he says.

“We had to spend two nights at Torkham border crossing until we were registered by Afghan authorities, before we could return to our village.”

This struggle is echoed across Kunar. Some 12km from Noorgal, in the village of Barabat, 58-year-old Sadat Khan sits next to the rubble of the home he had been renting until the earthquake struck.

Khan returned from Pakistan willingly as his health was failing and he could no longer find work to support his wife and seven children. Now, the earthquake has taken what little he had left.

“I was poor in Pakistan as well. I was the only one working and my entire family was depending on me,” he tells Al Jazeera. “We don’t know where the next meal will come from. There is no work here. And I have problems with my lungs. I have trouble breathing if I do more effort.”

He says his request to local authorities for a tent for his family has so far gone unanswered.

“I went to the authorities to request a tent to install here,” he says. “We haven’t received anything, so I asked someone to give me a room for a while, for my children. My uncle had mercy on me and let me stay in one room in his house, now that the winter is coming.”

One crisis out of many

The earthquake is only the most visible of the crises that returnees from Iran and Pakistan are facing.

“Our land is barren, and we have no stream or river close to the village,” says Din. “Our farming and our life depend entirely on rainfall, and we haven’t seen much of it lately. Other people wonder how can we live there with such severe water shortage.”

Dr Farida Safi, a nutritionist working at a field hospital set up by Islamic Relief in Diwa Gul valley after the quake, says malnutrition is becoming a major problem.

“Most of the people affected by the quake that come to us have food deficiency, mostly due to the poor diet and the lack of proper nutrition they had access to in their village,” she explains. “We have to treat many malnourished children.”

Kunar’s Governor, Mawlawi Qudratullah, told Al Jazeera that the Kunar authorities have started building a new town that will include 382 residential plots, according to the plan.

This initiative in Khas Kunar district is part of the national programmes directed by the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing, with an objective of providing permanent housing for Afghan returnees. However, it is unclear how long it will take to build these new homes or if farmland will also be given to returnees.

“It will be for those people who don’t have any land or house in this province,” Qudratullah said. “And this project has already started, separate from the crisis response to the earthquake.”

But for those living in or next to the ruins of their old homes, such promises feel distant. Back in Noorgal, Nawab Din is consumed by the immediate fear of aftershocks from the earthquake and the uncertainty of what comes next.

“I don’t know if the government will relocate us down in the plains or if they will help us rebuild,” he says, his voice heavy with exhaustion. “But I fear we might be forced to continue to live in a camp, even as aftershocks continue to hit, sometimes so powerful that the tents shake.”

Khas Kunar, Afghanistan – Stoori was pulled out from under the rubble of his house in Kunar province after it was destroyed by the magnitude 6 earthquake which struck on the night of August 31. But the guilt of not being able to save his wife haunts him.

“I barely had enough time to pull out the body of my dead wife and place her on the rubble of our collapsed home before my children and I were evacuated,” the grief-stricken 40-year-old farmer says.

Authorities say about 2,200 people have been killed and more than 5,000 homes destroyed in eastern Afghanistan, most of them in Kunar province, where houses mostly built from wood and mud bricks crumbled in the shocks of the quake.

Stoori, who only gave one name, is now staying with his children in a sprawling evacuation camp 60km (37 miles) from his village – in Khas Kunar.

“My village has become a graveyard. All 40 families lost their homes. The earthquake killed 12 people in my community and left 22 others badly injured,” he says.

Winter is coming

In all, the UN says half a million people have been affected by the quake.

In this camp, which is lined with tents provided by international NGOs, nearly 5,000 people are sheltering, each with stories of loss and pain.

Thankfully, the camp has access to water and sanitation, and there are two small clinics ready to receive injured newcomers, as well as an ambulance which can be dispatched to collect people.

Right now, workers are digging a trench to install another water pipe, which will divert water to areas in need around the camp.

Just a few hundred metres away, what were once United States military warehouses have been transformed into government offices coordinating the emergency response.

The Taliban, which returned to power after US-led forces withdrew in 2021 after 20 years of occupation, has been overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.

Tens of thousands of people are without any shelter at all just weeks before the onset of winter, and the mountainous terrain makes relief and rescue efforts difficult.

Najibullah Haqqani, Kunar’s provincial director for the Ministry of Information and Culture, says the authorities are working through a three-step emergency plan: Evacuate those at risk, provide shelter, food, and medical care in camps, and, eventually, rebuild homes or find permanent housing.

But the situation is becoming more challenging by the day. “Fortunately, we have received support from the government, local businesses, volunteers and international NGOs. They all came and helped with food and money for the displaced people,” he tells Al Jazeera.

‘The smell of dead animals fills the air’

More than 10 days after the tremor, new arrivals join the camp daily, inside the fortified walls of the former US base on the banks of the Kabul River.

Among them is Nurghal, a 52-year-old farmer from Shalatak village who was able to reunite with the surviving members of his family only on Wednesday morning. “From my large extended family, 52 people were killed and almost 70 were left badly injured,” he says. The devastation is “unimaginable”, he adds.

“The weather is cold in our area, and we don’t sleep outside this time of the year. That is why many people were trapped in their houses when the earthquake hit, and they were killed. Everything is destroyed back home, and all our animals are buried in debris. The smell of dead animals fills the air in my village.”

Life before the quake, he says, was stable. “Before the earthquake, we had everything we wanted: A home, livestock, our crops, and land. Now life is in the hospital and tents.”

Women face particular challenges in the aftermath of this disaster, as Taliban laws prevent them from travelling without male guardians – meaning it is hard for them to either get medical assistance or, in the case of female medical workers, to provide it.

The World Health Organization (WHO) asked Taliban authorities last week to lift travel restrictions for Afghan female aid workers, at least, to allow them to travel to help women in difficulties following the earthquake.

“A very big issue now is the increasing paucity of female staff in these places,” Dr Mukta Sharma, the deputy representative of WHO’s Afghanistan office, told the Reuters news agency.

Furthermore, since women have been banned from higher education by the Taliban, the number of qualified female medical staff is dwindling.

Despite these difficulties, the Taliban leadership says it is committed to ensuring that women will be properly treated, by male health workers if necessary.

Haqqani, Kunar’s provincial director for the Ministry of Information and Culture, tells Al Jazeera: “During the emergency situation, the military and volunteers evacuated and cared for everyone. On the second day, UNICEF set up a medical clinic in Nurghal district and they had female doctors as well. We took as many injured people as the clinic could handle there and they were treating everyone, male and female. In any emergency situation, there is no gender-based discrimination; any doctor available will treat any patients coming in. The priority is life saving.”

At a field hospital which has been set up inside the old US barracks by the displacement camp at Khas Kunar, six male doctors and one female doctor, 16 male nurses and 12 female nurses are tending to the injured. Currently, there are 34 patients here, 24 of whom are women and children – most of them were taken to Gamberi from their remote villages by Taliban military helicopters and then transferred the last 50km (30 miles) to the hospital by car.

The hospital’s director, Dr Shahid, who only gave one name, says male doctors and nurses are permitted to treat women and have been doing so without any issue.

‘A curse from the sky’

From his bed in the field hospital, Azim, a farmer in his mid-40s from Sohail Tangy village, 60km (37 miles) away, is recovering from fractures to his spine and right shoulder.

He fears returning to the devastation at home.

“The earthquake was like a curse from the sky. I don’t want to move back to that hell,” he tells Al Jazeera. “The government should give us land to rebuild our lives. My village has become the centre of destruction. My only request is to give us land somewhere else.”

Azim is still coming to terms with the loss of his loved ones. “Yesterday, my son told me that three of my brothers are dead. Some of my family members are in the Kabul and Jalalabad hospitals. And my wife is in Kabul military hospital,” he says.

Back in the evacuation camp, Stoori says he is holding onto hope, but only just.

“If God blesses us, maybe we can go back to our village before the winter comes,” he says.

“We have nothing left except our trust in God, and we ask the international community and authorities for help.”

Rescuers are desperately searching for survivors in the rubble of homes flattened by an earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1,100 people.

The magnitude 6.0 earthquake, followed by at least five aftershocks, hit remote areas in mountainous provinces near the border with Pakistan about midnight on Sunday.

The head of the Kunar Provincial Disaster Management Authority, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said on Tuesday that “operations continued throughout the night.”

He said there were “still injured people left in the distant villages” in need of evacuation to hospitals.

Villagers joined the rescue efforts, using their bare hands to clear debris from simple mud and stone homes built into steep valleys.

Some of the hardest-hit villages remain inaccessible due to blocked roads, said the UN migration agency.

The earthquake epicentre was about 27km (17 miles) from Jalalabad, according to the USGS, which said it struck at a shallow 8km (5 miles) below the Earth’s surface.

On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that the organisation was working with authorities to “swiftly assess needs, provide emergency assistance and stand ready to mobilise additional support”, while announcing an initial $5m in aid.

The death toll in the earthquake has risen to 1,124, the Afghan Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian group working in the region, said on Tuesday. At least 3,251 people have been injured and more than 8,000 houses have been destroyed in the disaster, the group said

Laghman province also has dozens of injured, according to government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

Relatively shallow quakes can cause more damage, especially since the majority of Afghans live in low-rise, mud-brick homes vulnerable to collapse.

In a post shared by the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV said he was “deeply saddened by the significant loss of life” caused by the quake.

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

In October 2023, western Herat province was devastated by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake, which killed more than 2,000 people and damaged or destroyed more than 63,000 homes.

A magnitude 5.9 quake struck the eastern province of Paktika in June 2022, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.

Thamindri de Silva, the National Director for World Vision Afghanistan, explains why it’s difficult for response teams to reach the area affected by the earthquake in Afghanistan.

Aug. 10 (UPI) — A 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey on Sunday, causing dozens of reports of damage and at least one collapsed building.

Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, known as AFAD, said in a statement that the earthquake hit around 7:53 p.m. local time near the Sındırgı district of the Balıkesir province.

Sındırgı is a small town of about 11,000 people, according to population data from the U.S. Geological Survey. In total, tens of thousands of people are expected to have been potentially impacted by the earthquakes.

So far, the earthquake has caused at least 20 aftershocks, with five of them reaching between 4.0 and 5.0 in magnitude.

Data from the USGS shows that the earthquake had a depth of 10 kilometers. Probability data shows there is a 41% chance there could be between 10-100 estimated fatalities, with the potential for millions of dollars of economic losses. These are model-based estimates and real figures may differ.

“In Sındırgı district, 1 building has collapsed,” AFAD said. “As a result of search and rescue operations, 4 people have been rescued alive from the debris, and efforts to rescue one person are ongoing.”

The earthquake comes less than two years after devastating earthquakes killed more than 53,000 people in Turkey and another 6,000 people in Syria.

Aug. 3 (UPI) — A small earthquake was felt near New York City on Saturday night but left no reports of injuries or structural damage.

The 3.0-magnitude earthquake hit the New Jersey town of Hasbrouck Heights, about nine miles from Manhattan, around 10:18 p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

It had a depth of 10 kilometers and people reported feeling it as far as Philadelphia and New Haven, Connecticut.

The New York City Office of Emergency Management said after the tremors were felt that it was monitoring for potential impacts. It later said that there were no reports of damage.

The USGS explained that the earthquake happened as a result of faulting at shallow depths in the crust, and such earthquakes are infrequent but can be felt on the East Coast.

“Although this event did not occur near a plate boundary, such ‘intraplate’ earthquakes can and do occur,” the USGS said.

The earthquake prompted jokes on social media from accounts that include one for the Empire State Building, which quipped, “I AM FINE.”

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Quake strikes 136km east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia’s far east, according to US Geological Survey.

Tsunami alerts have been issued in multiple countries after a powerful earthquake off the Russian coast, with waves of 3-4 metres reported in Russia’s far east.

A tsunami measuring 3-4 metres high was recorded in parts of Russia’s Kamchatka region, the regional minister for emergency situations said early on Wednesday.

The magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck 136km (85 miles) east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia’s far east, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Japan’s meteorological agency issued a tsunami advisory for the country, warning of waves of up to 1 metre (3.3 feet) high.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an immediate “tsunami watch” for the state of Hawaii.

The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency said in a social media post that the quake may be strong enough to “generate destructive waves” in Hawaii.

There have been no reports of damage or casualties so far.

More to follow…

A HUGE earthquake has struck the coast of Russia – strong enough to cause tsunamis, with warnings issued for the Pacific Islands.

The magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

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It occurred about 84 miles off Kamchatska at around 7.24pm EST (12:30am BST).

The quake was shallow and strong enough to cause waves or a tsunami.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was at a depth of 19.3 km (12 miles).

A tsunami with a wave height of 3-4 metres was recorded in Kamchatka, Russia’s regional minister for emergency situations warned.

Vladimir Solodov, Governor of the Kamchatka Territory, told people to stay away from the coast due to the earthquake being the “strongest in decades”.

No injuries have been reported so far, but a nursery has been damaged.

Locals in the small town of Severo-Kurilsk are being evacuated.

“Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors,” Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.

Shortly after the quake hit, another struck the Kamchatka Peninsula with a magnitude of 5.51.

Tsunami warnings have been issued for Alaska, Hawaii, Russia and Japan as a result.

The Japan Weather Agency said it expected a tsunami of one meter (3.28 feet) to reach large coastal areas starting at around 10am local time.

Authorities warned people not to go into the sea and stay away from the coast.

The U.S. Tsunami Warning System also issued a warning of “hazardous tsunami waves” within the next three hours along some coasts of Russia and Japan.

It comes after The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre warned of a tsunami threat to Russia following three earthquakes last week – with the strongest having a magnitude of 7.4.

The largest quake up until now hit around 89 miles east of east of the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky – 12 miles below the seabed.

A slightly smaller earthquake of 6.7 struck just minutes earlier, along with a third 5.0 magnitude quake.

There were fears Hawaii would also be impacted – but an island-wide tsunami warning was later withdrawn.

Alerts were also issued for Guam and American Samoa.

The USGS had warned of possible “hazardous tsunami waves” within 300 kilometres of the epicentre in the Pacific.

And residents in Russia had been urged to get to higher ground.

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July 16 (UPI) — A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck Alaska on Wednesday and a tsunami warning was canceled two hours later for the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island.

The quake struck at 12:37 p.m. local time at a depth of 12.5 miles about 54 miles south of Sand Point, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The earthquake was felt throughout the Alaska Peninsula and southern Alaska, the Alaska Earthquake Center said. Anchorage, the state’s capital, is about 557 miles from the quake center.

The Alaska Earthquake Center reported about 30 aftershocks in two hours after the earthquake. The largest one was magnitude 5.2.

Dave Snider, a tsunami warning coordinator with the National Tsunami Warning Center, told KTUU-TV because it happened in shallow water they were “not expecting a large event.”

The National Weather Service in Anchorage, Alaska, first issued a tsunami warning right after the quake, then it was downgraded and lifed at 2:43 p.m. Warnings were sounded in Sand Point, Cold Bay and Kodiak.

The Kodiak Emergency Operations Center reported a 6-inch wave that was confirmed by the U.S. Coast Guard.

State Seismologist Michael West told KTUU-TV that activity is common after an earthquake and aftershocks can be expected in the “coming days, weeks and even months.”

The area is part of Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

“This is the fifth earthquake exceeding magnitude 7.0 in a very small stretch of the Aleutians, just a couple hundred kilometers, since 2020,” West said. “Clearly, something is going on.”

July 3 (UPI) — An island chain in southwest Japan was shaken by an earthquake on Thursday after over 1,000 tremors throughout two weeks.

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck the Tokara island chain at about 4:13 p.m. with a magnitude as high as 7 recorded on Akuseki Island.

All 76 people on Akuseki Island were confirmed safe, no tsunami warning was issued and there were no reports of injury or property damage.

The residents have found shelter at a school after an evacuation order was issued, and the village is considering evacuating from the island.

The island chain has experienced heightened seismic activity since June 21 as local media described the wave of quakes as unusual.

“It’s very scary to even fall asleep,” one resident said. “It feels like it’s always shaking.”

“You can hear a strange roar from the ocean before the quakes hit, especially at night. It’s eerie,” Chizuko Arikawa from Akusekijima island told The Asahi Shimbun.

Some residents have been sleep-deprived and tired as they asked media to “be considerate and not make excessive inquiries or interviews,” according to a notice on the village website

The country is on the edge of its seat with this series of tremors by rumors that a deadly earthquake could be coming soon.

Japan is prone to be one of the most seismically active nations, with about 1,500 earthquakes each year.