Magnitude 5.9 earthquake strikes Hindu Kush region, Afghanistan; tremors felt in Delhi-NCR

A powerful earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale hit Afghanistan on Wednesday, with tremors felt in several parts of Delhi-NCR.

The earthquake occurred in the early hours of Wednesday morning at 04:43 AM Indian Standard Time (IST), as per the National Centre for Seismology (NCS).

The NCS shared the details in a post on X, saying that the earthquake occurred at Latitude 35.83 N, Longitude 70.60 E.


As per the NCS, the earthquake occurred at a depth of 75 kilometres.


As per the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), Afghanistan remains highly vulnerable to natural disasters, including seasonal flooding, landslides and earthquakes.

These frequent earthquakes in Afghanistan cause damage to vulnerable communities, which are already grappling with decades of conflict and under-development and have left them with little resilience to cope with multiple simultaneous shocks, UNOCHA noted.

Afghanistan has a history of powerful earthquakes, and the Hindu Kush Mountain range is a geologically active area where quakes occur every year, according to the Red Cross.

Afghanistan sits on numerous fault lines between the Indian and the Eurasian tectonic plates, with a fault line also running directly through Herat.