More than 800 people are dead after a 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan late Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reports citing a Taliban minister.
At least another 2,500 were injured in the temblor which hit two rugged mountain provinces near the city of Jalalabad said Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid at a press conference. No serious damage or injuries were reported in adjacent areas of Pakistan, though a heat map of the intensity of the shaking by USGS shows it was indeed confined to a limited area inside of Afghan borders, likely an effect of the quake’s shallow 8 kilometer depth and the topographical barriers of the region.
Which means local to the epicenter the shaking was stronger than a 6.0 would imply – and that its waves were likely to have been amplified and refracted by the Hindu Kush mountains.