Video Captures 7.5 Magnitude Earthquake in Afghanistan
An violent earthquake shook Afghanistan for more than two minutes today, with tremors felt as far as Pakistan and India.
A massive earthquake ripped through a remote, rural region of northern Afghanistan Monday morning, and rumbled its way along an enormous expanse of Southeast Asia, with tremors felt in Pakistan and as far away as the Indian capital of New Delhi.
Video uploaded to YouTube today demonstrates the harrowing effects of the 7.5 magnitude convulsion, which saw its epicenter in the Hindu Kush mountain range span out to urban centers in both Pakistan and India.
The BBC reports that more than 200 people have been killed across both Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the majority of fatalities occurring in the latter country.
Closed-circuit video captured from Afghanistan shows a busy street teeming with traffic grind to a halt as the earth begins to spasm.
In footage captured in Pakistan, a freeway overpass sways violently over a crowded street, and a landslide creates an apocalyptic cloud of dust.
The US Geological Survey originally categorized the tremor as a 7.7 magnitude earthquake, but later downgraded its assessment to a 7.5.
According to the USGS, earthquakes that occur in the Hindu Kush mountain range are a direct result of the friction and convergence of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
“This collision causes uplift that produces the highest mountain peaks in the world including the Himalayan, the Karakoram, the Pamir and the Hindu Kush ranges,” the organization indicated.
The star indicates the epicenter of the 7.5 earthquake in Afghanistan
According to Pakistan’s National Seismic Monitoring Center, which collates data on earthquakes and the effects of them in Southeast Asia, rumbles are frequently felt from Pakistan to Indonesia, the Philippines and northern countries like Tajikistan.
Pakistan’s seismic data advances some pretty scary statistics too. According to the NSMC’s website, 50 — yes, 50 earthquakes — have occurred in the region since last Wednesday, October 23.
