Earth moving: Quake jolts parts of Pakistan, sets off panic

No casualties or damage to property reported.

MUZAFFARABAD/ ISLAMABAD:

An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale jolted many parts of Pakistan on Monday afternoon. The epicentre of the quake was at the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border, at a depth of 212 kilometres, said the Met Office.

“The earthquake’s magnitude was initially recorded at 6.7, but after collecting data from cities across the country, it was measured as 6.4 on the Richter scale,” Pakistan Meteorological Department Director General Dr Ghulam Rasul told The Express Tribune.

He said that when the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates interact with each other, they release energy that causes seismic waves.

“Such moderate quakes are very common in the Hindu Kush range. Earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more, at a depth of more than 100km are not devastating.”



The meteorological departments across Pakistan reported tremors in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Attock, Wazirabad, Daska, Sheikhupura, Gujrat, Khushab, Murree, Sargodha, Bhalwal, Shangla, Buner, Lower Dir, Mardan, Charsadda, Peshawar, Swat, Malakand, Nowshera, Chitral, Khyber Agency, Gilgit, Skardu, Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Rawalakot and other parts of the country.

In Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), a government rest house was damaged in Kel, Neelum Valley. The jolts panicked and frightened the people across the country, as they ran out of their homes, shops and offices.

For the people of AJK, the tremors brought back painful and terrifying memories of the 2005 earthquake that had killed around 70,000 people and done a lot of damage to the region and parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

However, no casualties or major damages to properties related to Monday’s quake have been reported from any part of the country.

According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake hit northern Afghanistan, with tremors felt as far away as Indian-held Kashmir.

It said the quake struck 224km deep beneath the Hindu Kush mountains and close to the Wakhan Corridor, the narrow strip of far north-eastern Afghanistan that lies between Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Tremors were felt strongly in Kabul, some 290km from the epicentre, where people rushed into the streets in alarm, and even further away in Srinagar, the main city of Indian-held Kashmir.

A 5.6-magnitude quake in eastern Afghanistan in 2013 had killed 13 people and flattened scores of homes.

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

Published in The Express Tribune, August 11^th, 2015.