A devastating earthquake has struck Afghanistan; the death toll as of 10:30 EDT is put at 1,000, with at least 1,500 more people injured, Bakhtar news agency reports. Afghanistan Times fills out some details: it was magnitude 6.1, at a depth of “just 6” miles, near the Pakistani border. “Pakistan’s Meteorological Department said the quake’s epicenter was in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, some 31 miles southwest of the city of Khost.”
Afghanistan Times cites U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Robert Sanders on the fact that the impact of an earthquake is not only determined by its magnitude, but also geography, building quality, and population density weigh in. “Because of the mountainous area, there are rockslides and landslides that we won’t know about until later reporting. Older buildings are likely to crumble and fail. Due to how condensed the area is in that part of the world, we’ve seen in the past similar earthquakes deal significant damage.”
