The deadly earthquake in Afghanistan defies scientists trying to study it

An earthquake in Afghanistan in late June killed more than 1,000 people. Photo: Ali Khara/Reuters/Alami

Two weeks after a deadly earthquake in central eastern Afghanistan, researchers are still trying to determine important details about the event, which could help assess the risks of future earthquakes in the region.

The 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck at 1:24 am local time on June 22 near the city of Khost, which is close to the Pakistani border. The earthquake and its aftermath killed more than a thousand people and destroyed thousands of homes. But the area has few seismic stations, and security concerns and access issues have kept researchers away.

“If this earthquake had happened in Europe, we would have gone there right away — the day of the earthquake,” says Sophia Katerina Kovner, a geoscientist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. “Speed ​​is very important.” Kovner and her colleagues were supposed to use mobile seismic stations to study the aftershocks and determine the exact location of the event.

But with sparse seismic data and limited ground monitoring, researchers are relying more on images from space to study the Afghanistan earthquake and see where the next earthquake could strike. “We do what we can with remote data, but the results will be much less accurate,” says Kovner, who plans to use the satellite information.

Researchers say the damage is unusual for a 5.9-magnitude earthquake. This is likely due to the large number of buildings at risk in the area, along with the shallow earthquake depth, which is estimated to be less than 10 kilometres. This resulted in more intense shaking near the Earth’s surface. The timing of the tremors – at night, when many people were asleep in their homes – also contributed to the high death toll. “5.9 is just a small event and it shouldn’t kill people,” says Rebecca Bendick, a geophysicist at the University of Montana in Missoula. If the infrastructure was better, people wouldn’t have died. If the earthquake had been deeper, people would not have died. But this combination of the two was deadly.”

undefined area

With few seismic stations in the area, estimates of where the earthquake began underground are less accurate. The nearest earthquake station is in Kabul, about 160 kilometers away, followed by one at 350 kilometers near Islamabad, Pakistan, and the rest are all over 500 kilometers away.

Paul Earl, a seismologist who directs the US Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) in Golden, Colorado, says the center’s estimate of the epicenter is within a 15-kilometre region. If the earthquake had occurred in California, where there are about 950 operating stations, it would have been on the order of one to two kilometers. He adds that accurate location data helps emergency services to understand the affected area faster.

Available seismic data indicate that the earthquake was the result of a lateral fault slithering against each other in a ‘slip’ horizontal motion. But it’s unclear from that data how and in what direction the rupture spread – information that should help identify areas now at increased risk of tremors.

One problem is that the earthquake occurred in a poorly understood tectonic region, on the boundary between the Indian and Eurasian plates. This region has many sub faults and traces of small, unidentified faults, Kovner says, making it difficult to pinpoint an exact fault line.

It can take months to get detailed geological reports from the ground, such as evidence of changes to the Earth’s surface due to an earthquake, and they can be swept away by torrential rains, says Giorgi Hetini, a geophysicist at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. .

limited resources

When the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the international community responded by suspending funding for the country, including for research. The scientists said a lack of funding, a subsequent exodus of Afghan researchers, and the limited capacity of those still in the country hampered efforts to study the earthquake.

Najibullah Kakar, a geohazard scientist at the German GFZ Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam, says his colleagues in Kabul are trying to restart another seismic station in the city, but they don’t have access to the funds to repair damaged equipment. A makeshift network of sensors designed to measure tectonic motion that Kakar and Bendick helped set up in the northeast in 2016 has also been destroyed and offline since 2021. Kakar hopes the international scientific community will find a way to help “keep the work alive.”

Bendick thinks researchers will have a hard time learning much about the earthquake from satellite data, without ground observations, because it’s not useful for deciphering low-magnitude tremors. “No one is really going to be able to work on this earthquake, because of security and access issues,” Bendick says.

But others say the satellite images have already helped clarify the details about the quake. Radar data released last week from instruments aboard several satellites indicates that the rupture spread from the epicenter in a south-southwest direction, and that it caused a few tens of centimeters of deformation on the Earth’s surface, indicating a very shallow earthquake, Hetényi says.

What Are The Main Benefits Of Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2020, / Compare-autoinsurance.Org has launched a new blog post that presents the main benefits of comparing multiple car insurance quotes. For more info and free online quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/the-advantages-of-comparing-prices-with-car-insurance-quotes-online/ The modern society has numerous technological advantages. One important advantage is the speed at which information is sent and received. With the help of the internet, the shopping habits of many persons have drastically changed. The car insurance industry hasn't remained untouched by these changes. On the internet, drivers can compare insurance prices and find out which sellers have the best offers. View photos The advantages of comparing online car insurance quotes are the following: Online quotes can be obtained from anywhere and at any time. Unlike physical insurance agencies, websites don't have a specific schedule and they are available at any time. Drivers that have busy working schedules, can compare quotes from anywhere and at any time, even at midnight. Multiple choices. Almost all insurance providers, no matter if they are well-known brands or just local insurers, have an online presence. Online quotes will allow policyholders the chance to discover multiple insurance companies and check their prices. Drivers are no longer required to get quotes from just a few known insurance companies. Also, local and regional insurers can provide lower insurance rates for the same services. Accurate insurance estimates. Online quotes can only be accurate if the customers provide accurate and real info about their car models and driving history. Lying about past driving incidents can make the price estimates to be lower, but when dealing with an insurance company lying to them is useless. Usually, insurance companies will do research about a potential customer before granting him coverage. Online quotes can be sorted easily. Although drivers are recommended to not choose a policy just based on its price, drivers can easily sort quotes by insurance price. Using brokerage websites will allow drivers to get quotes from multiple insurers, thus making the comparison faster and easier. For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ Compare-autoinsurance.Org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. "Online quotes can easily help drivers obtain better car insurance deals. All they have to do is to complete an online form with accurate and real info, then compare prices", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing CompanyPerson for contact Name: Gurgu CPhone Number: (818) 359-3898Email: [email protected]: https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ SOURCE: Compare-autoinsurance.Org View source version on accesswire.Com:https://www.Accesswire.Com/595055/What-Are-The-Main-Benefits-Of-Comparing-Car-Insurance-Quotes-Online View photos