Among the natural forces that plague man and are beyond his control are, earthquakes are one of nature’s strongest weapon. Caused by the movement of the tectonics under the surface of the earth, earthquakes are notorious for causing large scale destruction. Collapsing structures, landslides avalanches tsunamis among other effects lie waiting in the wake of the quakes.
Caught under ruble many lives are lost, crushed, starved, bled out… death claims its victims in a variety of ways. As the earth shifts, man falls.
26th October 2015, Feyzabad in a remote area of the Hindu Kush Mountain range, Afghanistan the earth shook. An earthquake originating 196-200 kilometers underground caused major panic. The magnitude of the earthquake was greater than those previously seen by the people marking at an 8.1 rector scale. The earthquake causing several road blocks and landslides caused many deaths, more than 300 people met their maker as a result of this natural disaster.
In accordance with the most recent reports, the death toll rose above 365 and most of them were in Pakistan. The quakes were felt as far as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan going towards the south parts of the Indian capital and the Indian occupied Kashmir were left to feel the wake of the quake. In the prefectures of Aksu,Kizilsu, Kashgar and Hotan in China, the Xinjiang province as well as the Afghan capital Kabul suffered damage from the quake.
Kathmandu the capital of Nepal also felt the tremors, the population initially thought that it was one of the recurring aftershocks of the earthquake that took place in April 2015.
Relief operation in Afghanistan and Pakistan are underway, the United Nations has also mobilized agencies to assist in the operations, The Indian prime minister also called up the Afghan and Pakistan prime ministers and offered help.
Ten years prior to this earthquake was the last major earthquake in the same region of comparable magnitude marking at a 7.6 on the rector scale, early October in 2005, the earthquake resulted in 87,351 casulties and more that 75,266 people injured with around 2.8 million people displaced also the casualty of around 250,000 farm animals was recorded. A notable difference in the earthquake of 2005 and this one was the depth at which the seismic activity took place, the epicenter of the earthquake In 2005 was just 15 kilometers deep.