Herat, 16 October 2023 (TDI): The west of Afghanistan was jolted with another catastrophic 6.3 magnitude earthquake on October 15, Sunday after facing a series of devastating earthquakes and aftershocks earlier the past week.
As per the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake on Sunday was centered about 30 kilometers (19 miles) outside the city of Herat, the capital of Herat province, and was 6 kilometers (4 miles) below the surface.
An aftershock of magnitude 5.5 followed 20 minutes later to the 6.3 magnitude earthquake outside Herat city was also observed.
The humanitarian aid organization, Save the Children highlighted that due to the recent earthquake, 4 people have died and that Herat Regional Hospital has received 153 injured.
Also, the organization delineated that everything in the Baloch area of Rabat Sangi district has collapsed and several villages have been destroyed.
The latest earthquake is the fourth quake that the USGS has measured at 6.3 magnitude in the same area in just over a week.
The people in Herat Province have faced a series of shallow and strong earthquakes of magnitude more than 6 and aftershocks have struck the same area in Western Afghanistan since 7 October 2023.
Before the latest earthquake, on October 7 Herat was jolted with an earthquake of 6.3 magnitude and as per UN officials, more than 90% of the people killed were women and children.
Furthermore, on October 11, as per the USGS, an earthquake of 6.3 magnitude with a depth of 10.0 km also hit 28 kilometers outside the capital of Herat province.
Besides that, on October 13, an earthquake of magnitude 4.6 rocked the Herat province and as per the Indian National Center for Seismology (NCS) the tremors shook the country at a depth of 50 kilometers.
Also read: 6.3 magnitude Earthquake strikes Herat
The Afghan government officials highlighted that due to the prior earthquakes a week earlier, more than 2,000 people across the Herat province were killed.
The epicenter of those earthquakes was in the Zenda Jan district, where the majority of casualties and damage occurred.
Due to the repetitive series of earthquakes various villages have been flattened, destroying hundreds of mud-brick homes, and collapsing schools, health clinics, and other village facilities.
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