Afghanistan, Pakistan Socked By 7.5 Magnitude Earthquake

by JASmius



"....Taliban and ISIS insanely jealous":

A powerful earthquake struck a remote area of northeastern Afghanistan on Monday, shaking the capital Kabul and killing at least eight people in neighboring Pakistan, officials said.

Shockwaves were felt in northern India and in Pakistan's capital, where hundreds of people ran out of buildings as the ground rolled beneath them.

The quake was 213 km (132 miles) deep and centred 254 km (158 miles) northeast of Kabul in a remote area of Afghanistan in the Hindu Kush mountain range.

The U.S. Geological Survey initially measured the quake's intensity at 7.7 then revised it down to 7.6 and later to 7.5.

In northwestern Pakistan, at least twelve people were killed, including one in the city of Peshawar, according to government officials....

India's northernmost region of Kashmir experienced intense and prolonged tremors that caused panic in areas that suffered severe flooding last year. Power supplies and most mobile networks were knocked out, and there was structural damage to roads and buildings.

No casualties were reported in Indian Kashmir, however.

Just like in the distribution business, it's all about location.  This quake epicentered in a remote region, and only a handful of fatalities resulted.  A decade ago not too far from there, in northern Pakistan, a virtually identical temblor killed seventy five thousand people.  Today, the Himalayan seismic zone "hit 'em where they ain't".

The Afghan "event" will, for most people, be evocative of last April's Nepal quake that claimed the lives of nine thousand victims.  For me, it makes me look two hundred miles to the west of where I am at this very moment, to the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the 9+ magnitude "event" it's capable of and long overdue in unleashing on the Pacific Northwest.  Human nature always tells us that "it can't happen here," and "it'll never happen to me," and reading about natural disasters on the other side of the planet, thousands of miles away, only reinforces that complacent instinct.

But it can happen here.  And, in a vocational context, as I know better than anyone, it can happen to me.  To us.

To you.

I'm not being paranoid.  Just saying, count your blessings - and be prepared.